by Nina Camic
Hey, new readers! If you want a quick summary of how it is that I came to blog, read this:
It is the year 2004. My two daughters are away at college (younger one) and law school (older one). Wow. Suddenly I have time to write! Not big stuff. Little stuff. Bloggy stuff. And so on January 2, I start to post on Ocean. I test styles, I add photos. Things evolve.
Over the years, I tell you just a little about my past life. You’ll have found out that I was born in Poland, but due to my dad’s diplomatic career, I spent some childhood years in New York. Eventually, as a young adult, I moved back to the United States. I married, had kids, went to law school. And after a short stint at a law firm, I came back to the University of Wisconsin Law School, this time as a faculty member.
I taught law for twenty-five years and then took early retirement so that I could hatch new ideas and immerse myself in other projects. In the meantime, my marriage ends, my daughters graduate from law schools (both of them!), life moves forward.
I meet Ed. On line, then in person. Ed is his own guy. Ed is Ed. One date and we are together.
I’m done with suburbs: I live downtown. First in an apartment loft, then a condo. Ed is indifferent to the apartment and hostile to the condo. Ed likes life in his sheep shed. He travels to see me daily, but never tires of calling my brilliantly clever living arrangement ...a dump. (Ed: if I wanted to live in buildings like this, I would have stayed in New York.)
Five years after meeting Ed, I pack up my dwindling belongings and move to a farmhouse on his land (just south of Madison). We renovate it. Ohhhh, the farmhouse needs it! A hundred years of issues. But, Ed has skills and he has time. With the help of a small construction team, the place is patched, mended, finished and (in April of 2011) I move in.
Alright. That’s the chronology. Here’s what else you might want to know: I love our farmette (it's not really a farm anymore), but I am very often on the road. Away. Ed used to tag along. I have been known to call him my occasional travel companion. These days, he prefers to stay home and look after the chickens.
Anything else? My younger daughter lives with her husband and their little ones (Primrose and Juniper) in Chicago, my older one teaches right here at UW in Madison. She and her husband have a little girl (Snowdrop) and two little boys (Sparrow and Sandpiper). This makes me a grandma!
That’s it. Anything else you’ll have to pick up by reading along. Curious about my childhood in postwar Poland? Pick up my book, Like A Swallow!
I guess I'm in a complaining mood.
ReplyDeleteI don't like that guy's hair. She looks cool from behind tho'. And I like their two beers. They had calimari. She's more into him than he's into her.
I love his hair! Just not the haircut.
ReplyDeleteAre you at an age where your scalp is becoming visible, chuck?
By the way, your TTS comment made me thirsty.
In fact, my scalp is becoming visible, but that's not why I don't like this guy's 'do. It comes too low on his forehead in a faux widow's peak. I vote no.
ReplyDeleteI was so drunk when I posted last night. We went out for "Nuevo Latino" and I had Peruvian shredded chicken.
ReplyDeleteDo you want to know what the "gingeur" I mentioned on TTS is? I would love to tell you about it, tho' you probably already know--you are very astute.
Whatever, it's a ginger liqueur I made from brandy, vodka, brown sugar, ginger, cloves, cardamom, mineola zest (using a recipe I found on the Internet). I made it in 2004 with the intention of giving bottles of it away as Christmas presents, but I "forgot" and put it under the kitchen sink and then I really did forget it until my s.o. re-discovered it while housecleaning. It's super tasty and smooth and obviously nutritious. I drink it over ice with seltzer.
Do you know these people in the picture? Should I be really embarrassed right now?
ReplyDeleteOkay, you don't like the hair cut either. I see; we're good.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I guess I'm feeling kinda sorry for myself about my hair loss. Chicago dude has fantastic hair; we should all be so lucky.
Me, I've never liked my hair, even when I had more than I do now. My whole life has been one long bad hair day.
chuck: what's your heritage? do you have slavic fine hair? I'm not going to feel sorry for you unless you have slavic fine hair.
ReplyDeleteCan you post a contest so that I can win a bottle of gingeur? In exchange I am reissuing an invitation to dinner here. Bring your s.o. and you can have the upstairs loft.
It makes more sense for you to come to San Francisco--you being the glam foodie traveler slash photographer that San Francisco was built for, and me being kinda dorky and uncomfortable out of my element. Especially in the cold. (I literally have nothing to wear to Madison. Nothing. I don't even own a winter coat, let alone the right shoes.)
ReplyDeleteYes, you are invited to come to San Francisco and stay with us. We have a guest room for you with the most comfortable bed you will ever sleep in.
I will have to figure out how to explain this offer to the s.o. if you decide to take me up on it. He doesn't know I read blogs and he's never heard of any Ninas. Nothing I can't handle, I guess.
I'm considering. My mother lives in Berkeley so I could do a good deed even as I am disrupting your own harmony at home.
ReplyDeleteWhich part of SF are you in? That could be decisive.
Oh, it wouldn't be that disruptive.
ReplyDeleteI live in Bernal Heights, which is just south of the Mission District.
Why would that be decisive?
Why decisive? I suppose because it gives more info about you. Understand: most would tell me that visiting someone whom I know only as a regular commenter on Ocean is, well, foolish. However, I could spend an entire evening listing all foolish and impulsive actions that I have taken in my life. Here I am, not dead.
ReplyDeleteStill, sanity prevails even as I think a CA post is in order. I'm setting aside a day as orchestrated by chuck b.in SF. Your choice: April, July or September?
I've done lots of stuff w/ lots of Internet "strangers" over the years & it's always been fine. You have nothing to worry about. It's me who should be afraid--granting some crazy lady from Wisconsin access to my home!
ReplyDeleteWe can talk on the phone to calm each other and rationalize this out. I assure you we're very safe and ordinary. But why are we doing this again? :)
So, you never told us your mom lives in Berkeley. Berkeley is not the sort of place where people simply end up as a matter of course. How did she get there?
I'm inclined to say July would be best, but maybe September. Definitely not April...we have a remodel underway that's 3 weeks behind schedule. Our nerves are shot and we need some time to recover. I have to parley with the s.o.; more news soon. If it's September, it should be late September, otherwise you risk day-long wet summer fog in SF. Berkeley, however, will be lovely.
I'm still not sure how knowing I live in Bernal Heights is decisive. Did you google Bernal Heights and find this, this, and this?