Day of Cynderballz, 2016. At Home With Mimi Sue Composing

Today is Cynde Ann's 47th birthday and, sadly, Chitunga and I had to hit the road as soon as we got up (weather and vomit/stomach issues permitted - we don't have the bug, but it's going around).

So, here, I get the opportunity to retell the birth of Cynde (via my mom) while we sit watching This Is Us. It's not us, but it's them, and this post, is actually us. They don't own us, but they own them. The Man-ny. We, however, own us, and Cynde Ann Isgar is Us (although she was once an Isgar)

The year was 1969. Butch and Sue were in Hamilton for Christmas, and Butch insisted on heading home to Chadwicks, because that is Butch's nature. By the time they hit Waterville, it was a tunnel of snow and there was no other traffic. Somehow, by the grace of the Great Whatever, they made it to the apartment where they were completely snowed in for three days: 25th, 26th, and 27th. The fire department was contacted in case Sudy went into labor, and if that was the scenario to be, she'd be carried by snowmobile to the hospital (this is the part Cynde, Bryan and Casey love to imagine -- our mom on a snowmobile giving birth to the olden Crandall). 

Cynde was not due until January 5th, but on December 28th, the sun came out and it finally stopped snowing. This, of course, triggered Cynderballz to want to exit my mother much sooner and to bring the first child and oldest daughter to Butch. By that time, Butch was able to drive, but he was so nervous he passed the entrance to the hospital. It was the first pregnancy and Sue remembers navy blue pants and they were literally falling off of her....she had to do everything in her power to hold them up). 

Then, Cynderballz was born at 9:29 in St. Luke's in New Hartford. Since her birth, Sue reflected on much but remembers the following as her top Cynderballz moments;

• The years of marching band and color guard, especially the championship years; the George M. Cohen year being a favorite, 
• 45 years later, Sue and Cynderballz traveled with Mike to see Nikki perform with David Byrnes in NYC through Contemporary Colors (even riding the subways into Brooklyn),
• There were days of babysitting precocious Nikki and her constant need to be the center of attention, and the other days of running from Dylan's vicious, fire-breathing dinosaur attacks when they were toddlers, 
• (for Bryan, he remembers Cynderballz coming home from the bars drunk as a skunk, and singing "I feel pretty" from the West Side Story while walking on the edge of her waterbed), 
• (for Chitunga, he recalls the fact that the amount of information Cynderballz shares is directly correlated with the number of glasses of wine she drinks - there's a correlation there somewhere)
• (for Glamis, she just loves Cynderballz's dog-loving house)
• (for Casey, it is likely the trivia that when a woman shaves, it isn't only to be the front of the legs, but the backs, too)
• (for Butch, he simply remembers holding his first born in his arms and looking into her eyes - no one memory, he said, compares to holding his first daughter in his arms)

December 28th...three days after Christmas every year...it's the day of Cynde and we love the ritual every year. We could do half-year celebrations, but that would invade on Mike and Nikki territory, so we do a birthday in December, before the New Year, just about when everyone is sick of one another.

And for that we are thankful.

Happy Birthday, Cynderballz! 

We love you, and hope you have a spectacular day.