I Wish I Could Paint

Sundown was spectacular. I wish life was always this pretty.

This was day #3 of 8 in my summer duty at the campus Writing Center. M-Th this week and next. The Writing Center is truly a full house everyday when I return at 1:00 from lunch. Standing room only. The economy has lots of people attending school.

Today our daughter, Dede, strolled into the Writing Center with great-grandson Tristan right before my lunch break. She had brought Tristan's mom to the campus to start the paperwork to get enrolled for the fall semester classes. So we headed for Dede's car and made a quick run to the house to take Bob dog for a walk. I made a quick lunch, and then it was back to the campus.

Of course I'm very excited that Desiree is possibility interested in taking classes since it took me years in the School of Hard Knocks before I found my way to college. Desiree is currently working at McDonald's and discoverying rapidly that it is not only a dead-end job, but fairly thank-less. I so appreciate our daughter's generosity toward her niece, Desiree, in letting Des move-in with them just at the point that Dede thought she was through with carpooling and transporting kids around (Emerson, Dede's youngest, just graduated from high school a month ago), Dede now has a 2 year living in their house and is transporting Des to and from work and to any appointments and babysitting Tristan when Des is at work. Now Dede is wondering how getting Des to college is going to happen. I'm thinking a bicycle might be a good investment (if we lived in Portland or a zillion other places that would be a reasonable solution--not so much in Southern California). I think my daughter is a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

So I don't know that I gave much helpful advise when we spent time together today, but I do think that all of us believe that Desiree needs love and nurturing and certainly Tristan needs the wholesome home that Dede and her family are providing.

Knowing how to be "family" and how to do it correctly can be complicated--knowing how to give, but not so much that we make a family member dependent needs accurate balance; going the extra mile, but not getting used is another delicate issue. I know my daughter is trying to figure it out. I think this may possibly be one of the moments in life, where the learning comes while living the experience.

I wish, as Dede's mom and Desiree's grandma, I could just paint this situation into a beautiful scene like tonight's sky, but I don't know how. I'm not even sure that I am capable of capturing the beauty of the sky with my little cheapy point and shot. I'm just going to keep trying because that is so much better than feeling like a failure.

This sky was, though, a lovely conclusion to this day; I hope that is revealed in my photo. Tomorrow's a new day of opportunities. Good night.

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol