getting william down
William and I on the mini train at Short Pump mall, in Richmond
Photos by Billy
Summer is here, school is out, and I have William in the midday now; I am charged with getting him to sleep after lunch, which has proved a challenge.
William sleeps swimmingly at night, but he resists his nap, even as he yawns and rubs his eyes. “No sleeping,” he says emphatically, “No Mamma singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle.” I move on to “The ABC song”, or “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”, but he is unimpressed.
Like with an newborn, I’ve resorted to driving down winding country roads, trying to coax sleep, because I need William’s nap too. A pause in our morning of play. I wish I could close my eyes. In the rearview mirror, William’s eyelids grow heavy, but then, catch on something by the road. “Tractor, Momma!” he says, blinking back sleep.
I slow and pull into an old church, loose gravel for a parking lot. Our wheels spin. The tractor is rusted, a relic abandoned in the grass. We both look for a moment, then I pull back on the road.
To receive notices of new posts on Jocelyn’s Stories, click here
Filed under motherhood, photographs | Comments (3)Straight Punch
William making bubbles at the birthday party
Photo by Billy
Could William be more in love with his dad’s band, Straight Punch to the Crotch? The name aside, William finds their music sweet and salty in just the right proportion. They practice most weeks in “the unicorn palace” a run down mother-in-law suite behind our proper house. The band happily, generously plays “Robot baby” or “Summer Sun” just for William; he is still humming these tunes as I put his head to pillow.
Join us for the CD release party this Saturday evening (June 21st), 9pm at Zinc, here in Charlottesville, check out this review, or listen at the band’s myspace page.
CDs take a ton of time and work to complete…What art projects are you finishing up (or starting) these long summer days?
To receive notices of new posts on Jocelyn’s Stories, click here
Filed under family matters, photographs | Comments (3)the business of being born
Photo by ‘Papa’ Johnson
William recently turned two and I thought about the day he was born. I had a planned C-section at 39 weeks: a necessity, the doctors said, because of a previous surgery to remove several fibroid tumors.
When I’d initial decided to try to have a baby, I had leaned toward midwifery, not surgery. I’d had a girlfriend in college–half English–who’d given birth at home with a midwife; and in the years afterward, several friends had chosen some variation on this theme.
But when my doctors said, you have to have a c-section, dear, there was not so much disappointment as relief. Who was I to mess with the immeasurable pain and challenge of childbirth?
But I recently got a small pang for the initial desire to experience natural childbirth after Billy and I watched The Business of Being Born, a documentary by Ricki Lake on the child birthing trends in the USA.
Watching, I wondered again: why are women in our country having pharmaceutical and surgical interventions at an alarmingly higher rate than anywhere else in the world? Watching, I wondered, why is it that our rate of success at birthing still worse than most developed countries?
Watching, I wondered again:
what might have been lost after all?
How was it for you mothers and fathers out there?
To receive notices of new posts on Jocelyn’s Stories, click here
Filed under writing | Comments (6)anniversary
Photo by Stephanie Gross
Billy and I got married six years ago this month.
To receive notices of new posts on Jocelyn’s Stories, click here
CLAW!!!
Photo by Billy
Billy’s photographs documenting our local female arm wrestling phenomenon will be on display for the month of June at Cafe Cubano, in Downtown Charlottesville, during Festival of the Photograph. Check them out if you get a chance. Or learn more about CLAW here.
To receive notices of new posts on Jocelyn’s Stories, click here
Filed under writing | Comment (0)short story review
Photo by Billy
This is the thing: I cannot write another single short story.
It’s hard and all the good stories have already been taken, or they reside in other peoples’ heads.
When I try, suddenly the dishwasher needs filling,
the dryer needs emptying,
the dog needs to be petted, her graying mug wet and heavy on my lap.
Or maybe I manage a few words here,
a few pages there,
but then they thin to a trickle:
A dry river bed.
The yard is full of dandelions gone to seed.
What I mean is, everything seems overfull already.
What more is there for me to say?
A friend from Tinhouse, who is her own powerhouse, is managing this lovely blog for fans of short stories, The Short Review. All these talented folks seem to be managing to find the right sequence of words. See for yourself here.
To receive notices of new posts on Jocelyn’s Stories, click here
Filed under writing | Comments (2)