fail photo: a couple things to chew on

the conference i am currently attended has dug into the area of connecting the heart to the mind.
folks who know me will know that this means that i am enjoying MMI immensely.
it has given me a ton to "chew on" and some more to bring back to campus.

the conference also happens to be in Florida.
i've been told a few times to enjoy the sunshine while i am here.
so far, i have deeply enjoyed seeing the sun in a very blue sky.
sadly, it has been mostly out of the conference center windows.
but, i'll take it.

in the mean time, let me phone in another post.
from a break here in the conference center.
that i should probably be using to talk to other humans.
oops.

here is a young anth enjoying the beach on a family trip to San Clemente, California.



and, speaking of "chewing on" things, here is anth learning that the beach isn't quite as tasty as it looks.



happy Tuesday, and here's to s little sunshine, wherever you are!

joyOUS!

i randomly mention friends here and there on my blog.
my old college roommate, fellow res life community programmer, current creative writing faculty member and fellow mom, joy, is one of them.
she shows up here, in this post about anthony suggesting i'm a senior citizen.
or this one, about my bookaholicism.
and there are plenty of others as well.
well, to me she is joyOUS!
i am krysTYNE!
these are both pronounced as they are spelled.
and they are best delivered loudly from more than 15 feet apart.
in college, we took many of the same courses as English majors.
and, we had a few faculty members, our Dante professor in particular, who would mix us up in class.
now, joy and I did have a freakish tendency to wear similar outfits to class.
and we both had a ill-formed love of overalls.
and plaid.
but I would generally think the fact that she was blonde and I a brunette would be a good identifier.

here is a picture of us outside of our Newport Beach apartment.
yes, i know, rough life. 

here is a postcard with our beach house in it. 
i was fresh out of college, working for Verizon Wireless, and living with joy and three other English and Theatre majors. 
so many stories. :) 
we lived in the top floor in front of the ones with the little people in the rental buggy.
to put it in perspective, joy and i are sitting on the wall that they are driving past in the picture above this one. 
i fell asleep at night with my window open, listening to the ocean. 
i love it there.  
i specifically remember floating out in the ocean once with joy, on boogie boards, and having a discussion about how lucky we were. 
how few people on this planet of ours were able to live on the coast like this. 
in summary, it was a good year. 

sadly, the last time i saw joy in person was at her 2004 wedding.
during the Ohio State v. Michigan football game.
(yes, bern loves me enough to travel to Mississippi and miss the game.)
clearly, the wedding was not the sad part.
unless you consider being the 5-month pregnant bridesmaid sad.
but i didn’t.
she was the nice kind of bride who told us to go find a black dress that wasn’t too short or too long.

oh the belly those flowers were hiding. 
let it be known, i can actually say that I have re-worn that bridesmaid dress.
this was the only maternity one i owned through both pregnancies.
anyway.
i am not good at keeping in touch with people after they are out of my direct line of sight.
it does not come naturally to me.
joy is one of the very few people on that rather short list.

recently, joy and i were emailing/facebooking and i suggested she start a blog.
a few of my favorite people have blogs, and whenever they post, i feel like i talked to them that day.
yes, i know.
i didn’t REALLY talk to them.
and largely, this is exactly what we encourage students NOT to do.
to, in fact, go out and talk to people face to face.
but, often, the day is filled with work, then a frantic attempt to make it to daycare on time, followed by Krystyne Attempts to Make A Wholesome Dinner That Is Neither Kraft Mac n' Cheese nor Chicken Nuggets, followed by baths, followed by reading, followed by cleaning, etc.
at the end of a long day when I just couldn’t call, these little blog snippets give me a 30 second peek into my friends’ heads.
or their failed attempt at no-baking something.

now, I don’t usually specifically share their blogs, or devote an entire post to them.
but this one is extra special to me.
like i said, joy and i were English majors together and RAs and all of that undergrad goodness.
i went on and made my career in helping people deal with their lives as they happen in the residential setting.
joy made one of helping people learn how to put their lives on paper.
joy is a writer.
i find this infinitely cool and something to be respected.
typically, when she has finished something or has it published, she zaps it my way or points me to the online journal hosting it.
and, without fail, i stop what i am doing to read her recent essay.
as in, last night, she sent me a message to say she had her blog up and running and that i should check it out.
and, in the middle of painting my nails, i put down the brush and read through her shiny new essay that is up on the blog.
(i have a smudge on my right pinky nail as evidence.)
usually, after I read her essays, I forward them to my mom, a few friends, and a few colleagues who appreciate her writing as well.

but why save them up just for me?
to check them out, simply visit her site. now.
yeah, that’s right.
if you actually clicked on that link, you would see that the name of her blog is Joyous In Hell.
it comes back to Dante, as she explains here.
(she also shares her thoughts on us being confused by faculty in this post as well. haha.)
it's like i'm famous. but then, totally not.
to be honest, a lot of her writing is what some would consider dark.
i just consider it genuine.
but, yes, there is plenty of humor in there as well.
i kind of picture us as the equivalent to Meredith and Christina on Grey’s Anatomy.
willing to be “dark and twisty.”
sans the scrubs, medical knowledge, and variety of other differences that probably don't need to be named.
(but, we did both meet at work, and work with our husbands. so . . . there's that.)
her newest essay is about her “jesus year.”
but, there are also many of her other essays that i love up there as well.
particularly, there are a few regarding her recent neighbor and pageant girl. these are some of my favorites.

now that bern is done with school, it is on my very short list of Things That Must Happen Sooner Rather Than Later to make a trip to see joy.
and her little girl who has grown up on my fridge but I have never met in person.
particularly because we have decided that this sweet girl is betrothed to my son.
but, we haven’t really landed on which one.
and i kind of feel like she should at least have her choice between the two.

(for those interested in the usual mysavvyboys antics, come back tomorrow. you might just get to see the love note that anth received last week that enforces my choice to pair the boys with joy's kids now.)
 (disclaimer: no, i am not serious and make no assumptions to the type of relationships anth and benny wish to pursue.)

(or, you might get to hear about the WORLD's MOST INAPPROPRIATE statement i made to anthony regarding my friend's daughter. in front of my friend. and her daughter.)
(i'm having an awesome week.)

love-love (i know nothing about tennis)

yesterday, we finished moving this year's slew of Ohio State University students into the residence halls.

it was an exciting, and full, day.

as such, my brain feels kind of squishy and useless today.

thankfully, i loaded this last set of pictures from california over a month ago, so i have an easy post waiting to be used.

this is a good thing as coherent would not be a good way to describe me today.

hopefully, i will also make my mom happy, as she has been waiting a long time to see all of these pictures.

on our last full day in San Clemente, we decided to do something other than go to the beach.

largely because anth was pretty much over it.

and he was developing carpel tunnel syndrome from playing paddle ball.

so we decided to do something much better for his poor little wrist.

we thought we would give him an adult sized tennis racket and see how that worked out for him.



(actually, first we went to play a little bit of air hockey and the game with the little people on sticks who are playing faux football. or soccer. you know? the one i am too tired to remember the name of and too lazy right now to google so i don't sound like a moron? that one.)

ben was dead set on playing this game. 
as you can probably deduce from looking at the picture, he is not the best height for this game. 
this resulted in lots of frustration and a stick or two to the eye. 
that was when we decided on tennis.  

ben was much happier with this choice.
there was room to roam and, seemingly, no height requirements.

give or take the whole the-net-is-as-big-as-i-am factor.

he didn't let this get him down.

anth actually got to play tennis for a week at his summer sports camp back home, so he was excited to try out his new skills with Aunt Katie and Jeff.

aunt katie was excited to show my mom how to do . . . this.
currently, katie is enjoying Bikram yoga.
this basically involves doing yoga in a room that is heated to approximately 105 degrees.
she tried to convince me to give it a try.
i tried to remind her that, though we have not lived together for 16 years, i am still krystyne.
an inherent function of being krystyne involves avoiding hot places and sweat.
especially hot places where i will need to exert myself.
 

amidst the yoga lessons and ben running around playing a version of tennis that exists only in his mind, anth remained focused.

dad and anth played against katie and jeff, and later katie and my dad.
the whole thing was pretty cute.

later, katie got my dad to give it a whirl.

dad's yoga lesson didn't last very long.

at some point, something happened.
and ben reacted.
i no longer remember what that something was.
but that is usually how the story goes with my littlest man, so i feel pretty confident about this account.

the beaus.

i made the mistake of putting the camera down and bernie grabbed it.
so, here is one shot to prove i was actually there that day.
you can't see it, but ben is still crying here.
note the look of parental concern on my face.

oof.

fail photo 37: my kids don't look like me!

i am told on a semi-regular basis that my kids look just like bernie.

more specifically, folks usually say that anth looks just like bern.

i generally have two responses, depending on the audience.

one involves smiling and agreeing wholeheartedly.

the other involves agreeing and making some flip remark about genetics.

but, you know what?

i really don't see it.

there, i said it.

i don't actually think my kids look much like me.

or bern.

i think anth looks a lot like anth. and ben like ben.

i have always contested that benny actually looks like the men in my family.

so, during our august trip to see the fam in california, i took a minute to scan a few pictures around the house.

because me telling random people in ohio that i think ben looks like my grandpa isn't all that helpful.

now, you have it.

photos to weigh in on.

so i guess these aren't the traditional mysavvyboys "fail photos," so much as my photos of my kids failing to look like me.

womp.

also included below are pictures that show that the boys really did look a lot like one another at certain ages, though they don't right now.

for starters, here is what we look like.

except for my foot of missing hair that i can't grow back as fast as i'd like.

(this photo was taken by pricsilla of http://www.priscillajoyphotography.com/) 

here's another shot of bern.

since his face is the one in question.

and because i think it's a cute photo of him.

i have no idea what ben is reacting to so strongly on a children's playground.

this is my dad.

this picture will do absolutely nothing to prove that anth or ben look like him.

i just think it's a really cool picture.

this is my dad and his brother.

my Uncle Harry.

circa 1990-something.

here is my sister and i with our Grandpa Harry.

#1 - dear mom, that bow in my hair is potentially the reason i dressed in all black for most of high school. that's a whole lot of girliness going on up there.

#2 - also, i am wearing white socks with black dress shoes.

#3 - this was the thing to do in 1987.

#4 - no, it wasn't.

#5 - look how freaking cute my little sister is.

 

for a better comparison, this is Grandpa Harry up close.

you will note that these photos were clearly in frames before i scanned them.

and that my grandpa was not originally wearing a magenta jacket as i had thought all these years.

this is benny.

he is close to 6 months old here.

here, you will note benny rocking the same smile as that of my dad and his brother in the 90's.

and this includes my "i think ben looks like he has some Welch in him" photo series.

(bern's house has some good evidence of benny also looking like his Uncle Frank Anthony, but i thought it would seem odd to start taking photos off of their walls during our last visit.)

now, this is benny at 18 months old.

he looks all sweet an innocent.

but, that is actually a piece of candy/gum/something sweet sticking out from behind his head.

the only reason he is smiling is so that he can eat it.

 

and this is aunt katie with anthony at about 15 months.

similar, right?

and, just because i was busy scanning, here is a picture of me from the late 70's.

 

let it be known, combovers on babies were all the rage in 1978.

if only the beach didn't come with an ocean . . .

i still haven't finished putting up the four sets of photos i have from california.

i am such a slacker.

or my life is so exciting that i had even more fun things to post about.

interpret as you will. 

actually, the boys have been up to all kinds of antics over the last week or so.

and anth has brought home some fabulous classwork i will share soon.

but, i have been involved in a variety of things this week at work that have included moving 50 heavy tables, operating a life size game of Yahtzee, handing out ridiculous amounts of magnets, wearing a fake mustache, unloading the cars of incoming residents, and talking to first year students about utilizing their strengths.

most of this has involved standing all day.

and, apparently, i am no longer cut out for . . . standing.

because i'm pooped.

so, a few lazy posts for you over the next few days as we work to move in our almost 11,000 OSU residents between now and Sunday.

captions feel like something i can manage tonight.

partway through our time in california, my sister Katie and her boyfriend Jeff flew out from Kauai to join us.
i wish i could say that my pale self was a result of living in ohio.
but that would make me a liar.
i was just gifted with the irish skin in the family.

we immediately decided the best thing to do would be to put ben somewhere easy to monitor.

ben immediately did . . . this.
i am not sure what "this" is.

katie and jeff always bring fun things from hawaii with them.
i got some lovely smelling soaps and kona cookies, and we all shared some pineapple wine.
she made the executive decision that the boys would probably prefer toys to coconuts and mangoes.
she picked kites.
this was a fantastic decision.
especially for anth, who had decided he didn't enjoy the whole ocean part of the beach.
and sandcastles require ocean water, so those were out.
so, really, there was only so much paddle ball a person could play.
kites were a welcome new adventure to him.

aunt katie mae & anth

back to paddle ball.

aunt katie and her beau jeff

more paddle ball.

not an exaggeration.

katie's boyfriend jeff is a surfer.
who lives in kauai.
after a full day with no surf board, he slummed it up with a boogie board just to get out in the water.

ben loves putting on his sunscreen.

i mean, just look at that.
pure joy.

one of the few family shots we have from the trip.
please excuse whatever it is that ben is doing.
i promise he is just blocking out the sun.

my biggest savvy boy.

slightly awkward hand placement.
 

that's better.
 

here is my fam.
without me.

no, we did not plan these bathing suits.

ben told us he had "a widdle bit of sand in his shoe."
clearly.

perhaps we should have stopped and helped him out a tad sooner.

perhaps.