A Day in my Life/September 14, 2008

This is an event which takes place on the 14th of each month. More info, and other days may be found here.


A lot of years ago, I was the person who took notes at church Vestry meetings. A woman who was forty years older, told me that my job was a very, very important one; that I was writing history. I was so impressed, and truly awestruck with the responsibility and the necessity of the work I was doing. As I came to this monthly event, hosted by Little Jenny Wren, I thought of the older woman's words, and realized that our blogs, our online journals are history. As long as nothing happens or crashes or gets lost on the internet, our words are out there for future generations to read, and perhaps marvel at. Each of us writes about something different because each of us is different. Each of us is important. All our words are adding to the knowledge which future generations will have of people living right now, in 2008.

I have kept a written journal very infrequently over the years, but occasionally I used to write about a day; a day with all its daily details. I got up, I did such and such, I ate such and such. I wanted there to be a record if my kids ever were interested in an average day in the life of their parents. And now this opportunity arises. Jenny Wren has given us all a gift by suggesting this monthly topic. They say that life is in the details, and that is what this posting will be. The quotidian details of a Sunday in late summer.

I awoke to the sounds of light rain and "chickadee, dee, dee" in the air. Yesterday Tom put up the bird feeders, and this morning the birds were happily eating away. It is a miracle to me how they come back every year. Are they the same birds? Children? Newcomers?


I came down and recounted to Tom the whole Gilmore Girls episode I watched after he went to bed early last night. I love that show. I have just begun the second season, and am thrilled with the writing, the wit, the cultural references, the characters, the heart. As I was telling the story, I was reminded of the year I went to summer school in college taking a course in 18th Century British literature. I'd come back home after class, and Tom would tell me all about that morning's Andy Griffith show episode. I guess that pretty much represents the range of my interests from Samuel Richardson to Andy and Barney. :<) I then went along with my daily routine; a bowl of yogurt and fruit, followed by a cup of coffee with honey, seated each morning at a little café table, which is really my computer desk, sitting across from you, the bloggers I so enjoy visiting. I went outdoors during a pause in the rain to take my Sunday Stroll. It is lovely to still see flowers this time of year. After posting this entry, I revived myself with chocolate cake left over from a Friday evening birthday party for a friend, and a glass of milk. Spent some time chopping up onions for the freezer. I don't have any place to store onions so this is the way I'm going to preserve them.

Ate homemade bread, toasted, and orange juice. I'm not a lunch girl, and I prefer to spread my 'breakfast' foods throughout the day.

Did some reading in Donald Hall's memoir, Unpacking the Boxes.

Took a shower, and got dressed up for a big occasion. Susy turned 80 today, and the only present she wanted was for her son, his wife, one of their sons (the other is away at college), and Tom and I to go out to a restaurant together. We drove down to her house, and she offered us champagne and some fine conversation, and then we piled into her van, and she drove us to this gorgeous spot. Here is the view out the window.


Though the restaurant menu offered mostly meat and fish, the soup for the day was a vegetarian vegetable. Along with this delicious soup, there was fresh crusty bread, and freshly made mashed potatoes. Afterwards, we went back to the birthday girl's house for her apple kuchen, a perfect ending to a beautiful occasion.

A musical note: on the way down, Tom and I listened to Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day, a 1970 album by an artist I just recently heard of on the Bread and Roses sidebar. I love her. She reminds me of Donovan in those days, singing of gentle pastoral pleasures. She has the most ethereal voice, and her songs are like a meditation on the simple and meaningful.

"A day is a fine thing, and we shall never see this day again."
Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge, 1953