Jessica Dofflemyer is an artist, writer, photographer, and mother living on a small Hawaiian island. Her blog, "For the Archives," began as a 40-day experiment to chronicle everyday experiences raising her six-year-old son on her own. What evolved is now a collection of prose, poetry, and photography that seeks to find the profound in the mundane details of daily life. Dofflemyer's blog has archived over 700 postings and has been featured as a Wordpress "Freshly Pressed" selection.
Her photography has been published in the Pacific Writer's Connection anthology, "Ho'olaule'a: Celebrating Ten Years of Pacific Writing," and she continues to post her daily chronicles to the Archives at forthearchives.wordpress.com.
Her photography and art can also be viewed at forthearchives.net.
My last keyboard strokes before disconnecting from electricity for the next 4 days.
I’ll miss the Archives but look forward to multiple days with nothing to do but chop wood and carry water. Jeb comes with me. As well as Jeb’s dad (which I’ve noted is a person I haven’t spent 24 hours with in about 7 years). It’s a family affair in the jungle, bound to be as unique as our little ‘family’, itself.
The trip is really for Jeb. But I think the gods know that I’m in dire need of a little time by the river with nothing to do but smell the ginger flowers.
I’ll be here to share about the journey when I get back on the other side. Until then, this laptop and my cell phone are powering down.
This morning I wake early enough to watch the day come on. Reminded of a Maxfield Parrish painting – the modern, tropical-version-style, complete with telephone lines.
It was night, not all that late. 10:18pm to be exact. I was waking up to the strange sensation of ear buds in my ears. Ear buds that were attached to my cell phone, which showed the time. And then it all started coming together.
The fact that I was lying on top of my bed, still dressed. The lights on in the kitchen. And of course, the phone by my side.
I had been in a conversation with a friend. We had been talking on the phone. I remembered being interested in the topic, though at one point, feeling the slightest bit drowsy from a long day. I had no memory of fighting to stay awake as we talked. No effort to stave off sleep.
But apparently, like a switch, I just turned off and sleep took over. Because there I was at 10:18 with a phone still attached to my head and a hazy but certain knowledge that I had never said ‘goodbye’. The conversation with my friend was not given its proper, formal ending. I’d just drifted into dreamland, somewhere, mid-sentence.
How strange for him to be talking and eventually discover I was asleep. I wonder how long it took before he realized? Did he try to wake me?
Maybe he thought my phone battery died. That would be less embarrassing. But who knows, maybe I was doing the deep-sleep breathing right in his ear. Even worse, was I snoring?
Is this my indication? That I’m burning the candle at both ends? That my social skills are worse than rusty, they’re simply atrocious? Or is this faux pas a mere reflection of the fact that even moms get tired from the first day of school.
I don’t know what it means, but at least it was a friend I was talking to. I’m hoping we can laugh about it later.
For the Archives 