Author: Robin Chartier

What did I do on my Christmas vacation? I knit a sweater. I cheated a bit because it’s short sleeved rather than long, but that’s infinitely more practical for Abu Dhabi weather so I’m going to pretend that was my plan all along.

It started here . . .

And grew to here . . .

Hmmm . . . now I can’t find a photo of myself wearing it . . . I remember standing in front of the mirror so I could snap a photo to send to my sisters (since they saw it in progress), but I must have imagined that. Or I intended to, but got distracted. It happens.

More knitting adventures. Yes, that is a sweater that I knit and then cut.

My vacation sweater success inspired me to take on a too big sweater from a few years ago. I created side seams on my sewing machine, taking it in about an inch on each side. Now all that’s left is to reknit the hem so it doesn’t look like it’s been taken in so dramatically. I think I’ve got an 85% chance of having it turn out to be a wearable item. Before surgery I only gave myself a 10% chance of success — it’s looking much better than I hoped.

And my other creative work of art from this fall? My clock. At school we were redesigning our library and I thought it would be fun to make a wall clock using books as the numbers. I found titles with numbers (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Three Times Lucky, etc), copied them, and then one of our art teachers applied the images to discarded books (bye, bye Gossip Girl). I sourced a motor and hands online (and learned that you need a high torque motor to run the larger hands) and it finally all came together last week. I love it.

And no, I didn’t find it on Pinterest, but years ago when we used to go to Pizza My Heart in Monterey, they had a huge wall clock made of movie posters and I always thought it would be fun to make one myself someday, using books. (And yes, it actually keeps time!)

I love memoirs — not the dry biographies that I remember from elementary school, but first person stories told in a way that brings me alongside the author, shoulder to shoulder with them in the experience. My current listen is Bryan Cranston’s A Life in Parts, a collection of stories about his life both before and during his success on Malcom in the Middle and Breaking Bad (among other acting successes). Each chapter is about a different part of his personhood, with sections titled: Son, Explorer, Celebrity, Flea Marketeer, Father, and Walter White. I’m a bit jealous at this bit of creativity as he intersperses the parts he has played, both real and fictional, throughout his life and turns each one into a story.

I was thinking of the different chapter headings I could use If I were going to tell my memoir that way — the easy ones are Daughter, Wife, Mother, Reader, Crafter, Knitter, Librarian, and Writer. A more interesting one might be Nutter (affectionately referring to my life with Zoloft, of course). Biologist would be all about my love of Anatomy and Physiology and dissecting a cat with my sister in college. Cheerleader (a season cut short by a faked sprained ankle so I didn’t have to perform in public) and Marijuana Harvester for that time I got in trouble for picking the weed that our neighbors grew and making a “salad” out of it in our backyard.

I don’t know if I’ll ever actually join the ranks of memoir writers, but my working title at the moment would be: I Don’t Know Where We’re Going, but I’ll Tell You Funny Stories Along the Way.

Now to figure out my chapter titles . . . maybe Brown Avenue, Skyline Blvd, 955 La Paz Road, Highway 40, Fort Sill, Mustafa Kamel (our street in Cairo, Egypt) — lots of potential here.

I wrote this when Calvin started college and we left him in California to fly back to Abu Dhabi. Back then it felt too soon to post about it, with too much unknown, but after almost 3 fabulous weeks with my baby/adult son, I’m ready.

I didn’t cry at your birth so it only seems fitting that I don’t cry as you leave. Both events were marked with wonder, amazement and awe of new life.

You were a stranger then. I know you better now, but the man you’ll become is still a mystery — though growing clearer by the day.

I had no idea what it would be like to parent a newborn and I’m just as lost today. You’re my first to cross over into adulthood and again I’m a new mom to this era of life. Every day with you is a first.

Never stop texting.

Love,

Mom

A lot of this

 

Plenty of this

A ton of this

A wealth of this

I can’t really complain because it’s been an almost seamless transition to opposite time (or we could call it the Upside Down, like in Stranger Things). It’s a 12 hours time change between California and Abu Dhabi, flipping our schedules completely on their heads.

But it’s day four and I was awake at 4:30 this morning because the little people in the house were also wide awake at 4:30am. We’ll see how that comes back to bite me later in the day. Ouch! (I endured and made it through the afternoon sleepy time, but then fell asleep during The Last Jedi — fun movie, but the reclining, lay flat seats made for sweet sleep. No regrets.)It’s a wee bit chilly here. I actually had to get out my ID card to scrape the ice off the windshield before heading out for morning coffee. It may have started as frost, but in my desert naïveté I thought using the sprayer on the windshield wipers would clear it up. Nope, I managed to ice over the entire windshield and just made things worse.Yes, it’s a Starbucks party. I can’t help it. It’s so much cheaper here. I usually make the 3 kids all share one Venti, but today I was feeling flush. #heybigspenderWe are loving our extra time with Calvin!