Dear Patricia,
Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I was at work, or running around playing with my new camera most of the week.
Thanks for letting me know your kid's ages. It's funny that they cluster with two in January, two in March. Sounds like solid birthdays from Jan to June, with not a soul between July and December--well except you in Sept 13(?) and maybe Steve. They were so little when I saw them last (and Brian wasn't born yet), that its hard to imagine what it must be like having a whole basketball team for dinner every night---or fixing it. If I had to do it, I think I would stick to mexican, italian, or chinese food. I suppose it isn't that funny, but as I remember how much Mike used to eat, I am appalled at the idea of five of him. He literally ate twice what I did after he was thirteen. Speaking of which, how many computers do you have? Not enough I am sure---even if you had a network somebody must gripe.
What I associate with Michael from 13-21 is huge quantities of food, computers, sneakers, and miscellaneous junk. Luckily he didn't like cloths that much, but he did like sneakers. He used to have at least three pair in the bathroom. They would either wear out or he would grow more and they would get stuffed under the tub. The tub is the old fashioned kind with legs.
You know, the more I think about you and five boys the funnier it gets. What about bikes, old cars, shake boards, basketballs, games, sleeping bags, skis, camping and outdoor gear, all the junk boys drag around with them. The garage must be a scream.
But I am nobody to talk. Even at sixty my place is full of the stuff I play with: computer, art, photography, climbing, cycling and eating. I sleep in a sleeping bag on a plateform with foam, stuck between books above, records and cd's below. In November I bought myself a camera. It's the first camera I've ever had of my own. I always used Ruth's or Michael's before now. It's a fabulous camera, a Nikon F-100 (not digital) with two lens 50mm f1.4, and 28-70mm f2.4. So, that's my new toy. Naturally after going through a lot of film, I am beginning to think about all that space in my 8x10 bathroom. Hmm, could be a darkroom... In a few weeks I may get around to putting some of the better work up on my very rudimentary web page---its really nothing but a directory with some scanned art on it. It you're interested in what became of my art dreams, there are some scanned photos of the work. Go here:
http://www.rawbw.com/~cgrimes/homepage/portfolio.
Choose drawing, painting, sculpture. All the sculpture is abstract from the Seventies, the drawing is figurative or representational. There isn't much painting.
Anybody interested in college really or are they just going through the motions? Moving out is a giant problem anywhere. Here studio apartments are almost the same, starting at $650 but more usually in the 700-800 range. I pay $480, but only because I've lived here for twenty years and rent is still under the old rent control regulations. The main reason I didn't leave either home until I was twenty-one was exactly the same. I couldn't work, go to school, and live all at the same time.
The teacher business is pretty much the same here. The pay is dependent on the years of academic work, so both Andy(math) and Bert(chemistry) do night classes for more pay. Since Bert is currently on leave with disability, he is getting some reduced amount, but he has to go back if he wants his full retirement package. He was in a bad car accident and had a severe head injury a year and some months ago. When I first saw him in Dec 2001 he was in diapers with a feeding tube in his nose and IV's in both arms. He couldn't talk and didn't recognize anybody. He looked and acted like a vegetable. By March, barely three months later we went to the climbing gym together and we traded belays on easy routes. Now he is completely recovered, but has a slightly different personality---a much better one, actually. Anyway the point was, he is going to have to get ready to go back to work in the fall after taking a year and half off. In the meantime he is going to Hayward State taking courses to boost his credential and pay scale.
It's late, and I have to go to work tomorrow.
Love,
Chuck