Friday, August 19, 2011

Now what?

Wesley packed up her favorite tea cups to take with her, one from my good friend Laura Farrow and one from Jeff Martin who I used to blog with. I wish Jeff was still blogging and making these great cups, his work is so great. I have spent the past two days in a manic cleaning mode. I started with her room because it is really hard to clean around her. All the books came off the shelves, everything dusted and polished and all the little girl stuff put away. She will come home to the room of a young adult ready to rock the film world. I was amazed at her book library. Her reading mostly for pleasure, not just because they were school assignments: Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Upton Sinclair, Emerson, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, HG Wells, all of the Tolkien books, and her favorite Carlos Castanedas. She also has books about Pink Floyd, Kurt Cobain, books on writing screenplays, and lots of other strange readings like House of Leaves, Shutter Island and books by Haven Kimmel. The bottom shelf has some of her favorite childhood books, the collection of Harry Potter, books about wolves, Egypt, dragons, and many reference books on reptiles, birds, fairies, mythical creatures and the usual children's classics like Alice in Wonderland. This does not even include the crate of books she took with her. Many of these books I haven't read since I was forced to in high school, so I am thinking that I will go back and read them again. Who needs a library when I have bookshelves like these at home?!
I've been keeping very busy with this cleaning process. Yesterday was closest and drawers. The art room got a good purge, out went all of the childhood craft items like pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, glitter, paint by number kits that never were used. We always had supplies for school projects and I don't see any reason to keep a lot of this stuff. On to the thrift store so someone else can find some use for it all. I guess this is a process many parents go through when their kids go off to school, and it felt good to get organized and cleaned and get a lot of the old dusty toys and stuffed animals put away. I hauled four bags of trash downstairs and six bags of stuff for the thrift store. How can three people really have this much unnecessary stuff!
The above photo is registration day at UNCSA. The building with the long line and the marquee is one of the classrooms for the film school. Wes has a cinematography class in this building from 7pm-11pm, they will watch movies and talk about them. Sign me up for this class! The street is named Hollywood Blvd. and is one of the film school's sets. What a fun place to get an education. She has called home twice, very happy, not wanting to come home just yet, and I am really missing her. My mom and I have been consoling each other on the phone, I am now getting payback for all of the long weeks I stayed away when I was in school I guess. The more I go through with Wesley the more I understand what I put my poor mom through. Maybe now I will have more time to visit her and help her out. As our blogger friend Meredith well knows, you go from caring for your child to caring for your parents. What a strange circle of life.
This blog may become quite wordy with Wes not hear to talk to, maybe I'll do like Sophia's dad, Jim and give you a brief version then a warning to get a cup of tea :) Anyway, my blogger friends, I am happy that you are here. I have noticed some of my favorite blog readings have really slacked off, I hope that after summer it will pick up again, I like my blog fix!
Well, I have rambled on enough for now, I have some errands to do. Next week I start full time in the studio, wow! that will be amazing!! Thanks for stopping by, happy weekend.....

4 comments:

SUSAN WELLS said...

Yes. We have been cleaning our house as well. Filled our porch with furniture etc. to go to the swap at the dump. Our house feels more and more open. Every weekend it's another level. I dunno why my posts don't show up sometimes on ur blog...Any way, you have a real empty nest grl. Mine's just a little more vacant. Good thing you have a million shows this fall! I miss her too.

cindy shake said...

LOVE those mugs! Change is truly in the air huh?! all good -yes, I'm ready for a bit slower pace when I can peruse MORE blogs and get caught up with my e-homeys.

Linda Starr said...

Well she's off, how exciting, I'll have to check out Wesley's book list for recommendations to read, is she staying in a dorm? New beginnings for both of you.

We've beem cleaning out our cupboards and still some things in the bus, ha, I think the bus multiplies stuff it never seems to get empty.

Michèle Hastings said...

this post brought me back to the days of when i sent my only child off to college... like Wesley, Danielle didn't go too far from home, but it was still a major adjustment. you seem to be handling it well... there is something about cleaning & sorting that helps many of us get through emotional events.