She's my Artie.

My baby girl turned 18 on Monday.Funny that this is not her birthday cake. It's a celebratory cake from when she took her sculpting class in NYC.
That means that I've been married with kids for 18 yrs. Wow. And whoever decided that I deserved someone like Artie I really want to the thank them. She's amazing.
I was in labor for about 43 hours with a hard labor of 10 grueling ones. I was terrified of having a girl because my relationship with my mom is pretty screwey. Oh, but when she finally popped forth I knew that someone special had just arrived on the planet.
Artie has been by mentor, my friend, my daughter. She truly dances to the beat of a different drummer and I've had no choice but to watch her rythmic sway and trust that she and the universe know best. They have. We've journeyed. Sometimes together, sometimes as an observer.
18 for the 18 yr. old:
1. When Artie was in grammer school participating in the alternative classroom she was the one that all the kids came to solve their conflicts.
2. When Artie was a young child living in Tucson she would dance around our back yard wearing a pair of pink cowboy boots and nothing else. Buck naked and full of joy.
3. When Artie was just a baby she never slept. I would have to rock her for hours and rub the top of her head until finally, finally she would fall asleep.
4. When Artie was in first grade she came home and announced that she wanted to homeschool. How could I say 'no'? The journey of her education began.
5. Quite waters run deep. That's my Art.
6. Her given name is Hartshorn and she has changed it to Artemis.
7. She is always doing art projects: a quilt, painting, drawing in her art pad. She gets us to do family art projects.
8. She loves to sleep. I don't think I've ever met anyone who loves to sleep as much as she does.
9. Animals love her. I've never seen an animal that isn't drawn to Artie.
10. She can be so resolute and nothing will change her mind. Once her heels are dug in nothing is moving her.
11. She loves coffee and chocolate. She starting drinking it on a full time basis about 2-3 yrs. ago.
12. She's taller than me so I guess the coffee has not stunted her growth.
13. She a wildly talented artist.
14. She was a late reader but once she started she devoured the most diverse books.
15. She's a movie buff with again a real diversity of the movies that she likes.
16. She has never had a boyfriend or girlfriend of the romantic kind. She says that relationships are very complicated and she hasn't figured herself out and therefore can't imagine trying to be with someone and having to figure each other out.
17. She's wise beyond her years.
18. She has so many things that she thinks she might want to do with her life that she can't decide what to do first.

She'll be flying the coop soon. Since her young adulthood she has said that once she is 18 she's moving out. Not because she doesn't love us but because she thinks that 18 is when she needs to be on her own.
Michael and I wanted to take Artie to get her voter registration card on her birthday but alas we are here in NY and not residents so she will wait until she gets back to Lopez next month. I asked her what she wanted to do now that she was 18. There have been two things that she has been thinking about. One is to go and buy a lottery ticket. The other is to go into a local cigar store and she wants to buy a cigar tin to use as a money holder in her purse. Legally you have to be 18 to buy cigars and she loves the feeling of being able to walk in all by herself and get this tin that she has been wanting. Who knew?
She's my Artie.