Once a year we figure it’s important for the women of Eyrealm to get together and bond, believe, behold, belong, and beseech beyond our own realm of existence and have a bash at the Mothers and Future Mothers of Eyrealm Conference.
This year we gravitated to Orange County, since Noah and Kristi had just moved there and we wanted to see their new “digs” and their new van (a luxury after living in NYC for five years without a car).
Eight of us joined the ninth (Kristi) in sunny California for three days and three and three nights of delicious delight. Darling Tess (Aja’s mom) and Aniston brought the baby and Aja to us at the hotel. Julie came later with her sister and kids.
Delight…at least for most of us. Don’t know how delightful it was for Aja to be there with brand new baby Poem in a room with four other moms, but baby and mom were both champs!
Precious Poem Eyre at four weeks:
There couldn’t be 8 more stimulating and synergistic daughters and daughters-in-law! Four of each. We absolutely ripped it up with catching up, eating up and tearing it up!
After everyone arrived we had a great discussion led by Saydi about “Margins”. It was good for all of us think about providing margins in our busy lives that leave room for thoughtful meditation. Margins give us a feeling that we are in charge of our lives and we are living life as we are intended to rather than that life is controlling us.
We then moved to a great fish place at the base of the hill of our resort and Dad joined us and added some nice spice to our gaggle of women (sorry Dad, why didn’t we get you in this picture?)
As you can tell, it was a little cool in the evenings but the days were spectacular! After dinner we went back to the hotel and had a fun discussion about the NYT essay called “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” based on Amy Chau’s new book called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Fascinating comments and so fun to discuss.
The next morning we had breakfast at a restaurant on the beach that Saydi’s friend had told her about. These women cast a pretty tall shadow!
And low and behold, the friend who had told Saydi about the fabulous food at this place, who now lives in Texas just happened to be in CA and just happened to be AT the restaurant while visiting her mom in CA with her husband and her kids. …
And she took this picture for us. Wild serendipity!
After some pretty fabulous food and fun conversation about our most fun and most disastrous events since we last saw each other.
we were off to the Getty Museum….a longtime dream of mine! It was absolutely amazing!
Here we are at the entrance.
Aja was on her way to the elevator with the stroller:
The outside and the superb array of flora and fauna was a good as the inside!
The walls were all rough-cut travertine from Italy with fossils still embedded in many of the stones.
I think this is how we all felt but Charity is the best at showing it…because she is “dripping with passion.”
The collection was everything from eclectic to elegant. I was ecstatic!
A typically tremendous Turner (oops my computer can’t tell that this sideways). The illuminated manuscripts were “illuminating”!
And as usual, Poem was prefect!
We wandered and enjoyed until closing and then found a wonderful Indian Restaurant where we had a thoughtful discussion about our book for this year The Good Earth until the traffic thinned. What a lot we learned about sacrifice, poverty and riches and the universality of human nature from this tale of China in the 30’s from Pulitzer Prize winner Pearl Buck.
Saydi is not in labor…just has heartburn! Sorry Saydi! We had a very kind waiter from Chennai where Kristi and Julie would be in about 48 hours and he gave Julie and Kristi free rice pudding at the end and names and addresses of people and places to see in his hometown in India. Serendipity reigns again!
Going from the sublime to the ridiculous (and fun) was next. We decided to just go crazy and “drag Rodeo Drive” in Hollywood since it was late and we were so close. By then everyone was feeling pretty relaxed and great about being away from the kids and responsibilities so after yummy frozen yogurt, the women in the van decided it was time to feel like a teenager again…rolled back the sun roof, turned up the radio full blast on a rock station and rocked that mini-van!
What you can’t see here because it was dark on Rodeo drive……
Was THIS! Keep in mind that both these moms of five on the ends as well as the very pregnant one in the middle were flailing their hands and singing every word they knew (which for some wasn’t many) to the very loud music shooting out of the car.
GLEE!
They also did a Chinese fire drill at a red light, so we…in the car behind….not to be outdone, did our own Chinese fire drill. Other than the fact that I went the wrong direction, it was pretty spectacular!
Sleeping in, exercise, relaxation and invigorating conversation was on schedule for Saturday morning. After a yoga class led by Saydi, Dad joined us for a lovely breakfast at the hotel.
At the pool we talked about Patriarchal blessings and what we have learned from them. Saren led a discussion on some very interesting ideas that have immerged from a group of women she’s been working with in Salt Lake since their move there. Fascinating ideas!
An early dinner was next with fish and chips, fish tacos and a great big gourmet pizza. Our topic of conversation was the best thing we had done lately for our husbands.
From there we traveled to the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts to see a most incredible ballet performance by seven Russian Women and four Russian men who were mostly Julie and Charity’s age trained by the Bolshoi Ballet. The description of Classical Contemporary Ballet says it all. The dancers were not only performers but creators and producers of many of the dances and the creativity was beyond belief! They had each won gold or sliver medals in International competitions and the troop was on their way to Russia for performances the following day.
I would LOVE to have talked to them individually to find out if they each had a “Tiger Mother” or if they came with a passion for dance. Probably both. They were truly incredible!
A great time was had by all including Saydi’s baby who probably had a wonderful time listening to the music of a fantastic orchestra complete with mandolins!
Aja and I rushed home to get to Poem who was being loved by Tess and Ana at the hotel and the others took Kristi home to get ready to leave for India the next day.
After a lovely birthday breakfast for Shawni the next morning at the hotel we packed up and rushed off to “help” with the packing and stuff all their stuff, most of which was all the imagine learning stuff for the Rising Star School in India in the van and off to the airport.
What an truly memorable weekend with my favorite women in the world! And thanks to all the dads, the grandfather, Lovie and helpers in the households at home who held down the fort for 19 grandchildren so that we could reunite, renew and regenerate as Mothers and Future Mothers of Eyrealm.
Special thanks also goes to my mom an dad because we are using the funds from the sale of their little farm home in Idaho to have all this fun! I think they’re enjoying this from heaven.
Probably the worst re-entry story was Saydi’s, who took a red-eye home to Boston and hardly slept with her big tummy, was picked up by a friend and greeted by a frigid minus four degrees with a wind chill factor of minus 17…. and her friend’s sun roof was stuck open. Plus Charlie was still recovering from “sick” and whining when she got home.
Ah life is real!
