At rest

My grandmother died the morning after Thanksgiving. She was 91.

Willie Myers was a vibrant, busy, generous person for all but the last four years of her life. She even helped raise her first great-granddaughter, the girl leaning on her shoulder in the above photo. She was the Fun Grandma. She used to come over to our house all the time when my brother and I were little.

You should've seen her dance at my wedding. She was shakin' it harder than people 30 years younger than she.

But she kind of gave up after my dad died in 2006. About a year later, I interviewed her about Daddy's childhood, and about her and my grandfather, and what a goldmine she was. Even though her memory was starting to fail by then.

 

Running errands with my brother helped me keep my sanity during the funeral preparations. Completely unexpected... it's been years since I thought of my brother as a haven from The Family Crazy, for many reasons.

I wish I had more time to tell you about Willie Myers, but this will have to do for now.  Try to appreciate the relatives who don't drive you crazy, while you can.

Snow-pocalypse 2010

Every time it snows here on the west side of Extra-Blue State, people Lose They Damn Minds.

Just one to three inches of snow, but you'd think it was nuclear winter.

So I won't bore you with more crashed buses and cars... I'll thank God again that I don't have to work in the snow, and show you what else happens when it snows.

First-graders who have a snow day make celebrity appearances at their former day care centers.

Real snow makes fake wreaths look more natural.

Small people try on their mother's gloves.

 

And then it's time to get ready for Hanukkah Christmas Thanksgiving.

Need more time

Speaking of art and motherhood... I was all over both this weekend. Don't know if I'd need forty days and forty nights to explore the Skirball Center. But I sure could've used more than two hours.

We took The Boy, TwoBoo and and the niecey-nieces to see the "Noah's Ark" exhibit.

It's like an interactive children's museum exhibit, but better: all the animals are made of recycled bits and thingamabobs.

Check out the crocodile's eye ridge -- it's a glove! See if you can identify the other recycled bits, kids.

You can make the animals march in two by two...

 

... and climb the rigging... 

... to pull a rope that makes the elephant's trunk wave.

Who knew there'd be so much to see? I remember when the Skirball Center was nothing more than a flat patch of dirt. But it's not just a kids' fun center. Oh no.

Twelve of the original 1000 Journals are on display -- and you can contribute a page to the project!

Love that I don't have to explain it to the kids. They just want to jump in.

No time to do my own page. Gaaah! And guess what's opening tomorrow -- tomorrow, people...

A Maira Kalman exhibit! (Closed during installation, but I could see this above the barrier...)

Jeebus. Where have I been that I didn't know about this?! Oh yeah... a thousand miles away. I need more time and frequent-flier miles.