008/365 - 7 November 2015, Saturday | Another rainy day. Pulled this umbrella out of the foyer closet thinking it was my flower umbrella, but, no. This must have once belonged to my mother-in-law (it doesn't strike me as my sister-in-law, Leah's, style), though Wolfman says he doesn't recognize it. Every once in a while, cleaning and organizing in the house, I will unearth some artifact of my mother-in-law--a framed handkerchief, a cookie jar shaped like a plump girl wearing a red hood, the chipped stonewear mug with the sea shells etched on it from which I sometimes drink coffee, the sea shell stationery I didn't use enough of this summer. I can add this umbrella to that collection.
009/365 - 8 November 2015, Day Off, Sunday | Some of my greatest pleasures: watching laundry spin in a washing machine, watching clothes flap on a clothesline, watching the wind whip about my prayer flags.
010/365 - 9 November 2015, Carl Sagan's Birthday, Monday | On his second birthday, I gave Mads his first journal. I decorated the covers, front and back, in collage, using film photos of Mads and pages ripped from National Parks Magazine and stickers of wild animals and Disney/Pixar's Cars. Mads scribbles in it with marker (his favorite colors to use are blue and purple, I think because they're the darkest). I tried, at first, to get him to scribble on each page consecutively, so that I'd have some kind of record of any progress his scribbles might make. But, he had other plans. Little boys usually have other plans.
011/365 - 10 November 2015, Tuesday | It's full-on, full-time Christmas in the shop. I'm a tad of a humbuggy grandma when it comes to Christmas-before-Thanksgiving. It's not because I don't enjoy Christmas--the music, the lights, the wrapping; I just really love Thanksgiving. My favorite holidays are ordered the same in my affections as they are in the year: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Yule. Thanksgiving is not just a precursor to Christmas. It's a completely separate holiday celebrating something completely different; it's a harvest holiday, an Autumn holiday. But, I must admit that listening to Christmas music in the shop is a nice break from all the Christian Contemporary music.
012/354 - 11 November 2015, Wednesday | Most work days, I have two hours with my son in the morning, and two hours in the evening when I get off work. When I'm good, I'm focused pretty intensely on being present and being Mads' mom during those hours. And Wolfman? He is like a satellite circling us, present but not always noticed. Life is hard sometimes. Love is easy, but all the other stuff is hard. Here is the man I love, early in the morning, before he drives me in to work.
013/365 - 12 November 2015, Thursday | This was Serena's buy, not mine, but I happened to be at the counter when the customer returned to the store to review her invoice. She was, obviously, disappointed with how little we were interested in buying from her, just this vintage suit and a little silk tank. But, she signed for her cash, gathered her declined items to take home with her, and told me she'd spent $12 on new buttons for the suit we bought from her (for about $4). "The buttons make the suit," she announced, proudly. This is my favorite and least favorite part of my job: the stories our clothes tell. Clothes mean something to most women, we remember the events to which we wore certain pieces, we remember where we bought certain pieces and how much we spent on them and why. Clothes for women are tied up in emotion and history and status, which makes my job so interesting and, at times, so difficult.
014/365 - Friday the 13th of November 2015 | Wolfman's mom sewed some pajamas for Mads, the fabric printed with dogs driving cars, trucks, boats. The shirt fits fine, but the pants are so big on him. I'll take a photo of him wearing them now, when they're too big, and then again when they fit, and again, years from now, when the hem of the pants rest at his ankles and the shirt is too snug.
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