Comeback

From an awesome trip we took in the last year
that I may or may not tell you about someday.

I'm coming back-really and truly-and aiming for one post per week.  Not that you need to know that, but putting it out there might help me focus in a bit.  I've been struggling with my online presence over the past year: how much of myself or my family I really want to put out there in the world; respecting my son's growing need for privacy and not having his life exposed for the entertainment/sentimentality of his mother before he ever gets a chance to define his own online presence; and living life from a first-person perspective-being present while not always thinking about how I'm going to cast "this thing I'm doing" on my blog.  And in many ways, the past year without blogging has been very freeing, of my time and how I interact with the world.  On the other hand, I love writing, I love telling stories, and many of my past posts have captured events, for me, that I would otherwise have forgotten.  I didn't come up with any grand theories about how to balance stories/privacy/presence but I think that if I practice enough, I can figure it out or at least find something I can live with.  So I'm going to try to get back to telling the stories I want to tell and starting the conversations that interest me and see what happens.  Because, to loosely quote (my favorite movie) Joe vs. The Volcano, "that's life, right? you jump and you see."

Uniformly Lovely

I'm thinking about adopting a uniform. I read, and I'm sure it's true because everything I read is mostly true, that most people only wear about 20% of the clothes in their closet.
The other 80% is just filler. This is probably true for me.
My favorite daily outfit is composed of: jeans, t-shirt, and cardigan with three-quarter length sleeves. I feel like myself. I look presentable but not over dressed for my day (which, let's be honest, barely involves leaving the house), and those clothes are easy to care for. I have other items in my closet but those are the ones I keep going back to. So I'm thinking, why not just wear only what I love to wear and pretty much ditch the rest? I'd keep my suits and a few items for those times when I have to show my face in the office and a couple of dresses for special occasions. But everything else would go. Because, then, how easy would it be to get dressed in the morning?!! I'm going to stew on this until the weekend before I take the plunge and cull my closet.

The Digital Sabbatical

I don't know if you can really say that you are taking a sabbatical if 1) you are not an academic or 2) are only taking it for two days, but I didn't come up with the term so I'm not going to be picky (I stole the idea from Rowdy Kittens). As part of my observance of Lent, I'm using the weekends to take a digital sabbatical meaning that I am avoiding my computer and smart phone (beyond making phone calls) on Saturdays and Sundays. The first and second weekends of Lent were easy because we were out of town the first weekend and the second weekends was consumed with laundry and house projects. Last weekend we finally had some down time and I felt the full force of my internet fast. I would typically have whittled away a good deal of time reading the the paper online, lurking on Facebook and catching up on some of my favorite blogs, maybe trolling Etsy or Craigslist. Last Saturday, I did this instead:


In case you can't tell, that would be a meticulously rendered drawing of Imperial Star ships and fighters duking it out with Rebel Destroyer Blaster Bazingas. Or something like that. When you draw the lasers, you have to say "pow, pow, pow" in a laser-y voice. The green stuff is from the slime shooters. One of the ships shoots candy canes and peppermint drops. You are NOT allowed to draw heart shooters. I would love to tell you that the two hours I spent doing this were the best of my life, that I learned deep and meaningful truths about parenting and creative play and exploring color and geometry while experiencing world through the innocent perspective of my gifted offspring. Truth be told I kind of missed the weekend paper and I didn't have enough coffee. And I had a cold. And also it is hard to be bossed around by an eight year old because your ARE DOING IT WRONG. And my gifted offspring likes Stars Wars a little too much and talks non-stop. But. Watching the wheels in my child's brain spin is absolutely delightful and fascinating and funny. Really, really, really funny.
I also used some time last weekend to read and on Sunday afternoon I slept for four hours (because I was sick). I can't say that I wouldn't have done these things had I allowed myself access to a computer, but somehow it was easier to do them. Sort of as if I had permission. It wasn't life altering or cathartic, but it was nice. And I'll always take nice.

Spring, Thou Art a Fickle Bitch

We returned from a fantastic spring break trip to California to sunny days and temperatures in the mid-50's. Not spectacular, but I'll take mid-50's over mid-20's any day. The tulips in our back yard popped up and I began to feel the tingle of the slow thawing of my fingers and toes, and, dare I say it, a ray of hope for warm days and running outside. Then. Grrrr. Snow. Lots and lots of wet icky snow. Grrrr. This time of year makes me crazy and crabby. And also I came down with a cold, could not remember where the power button for my computer was this morning, and forgot how to log into work because I hadn't done it in over a week. And also-also, the dog ran out of food and my car is nearly out of gas.

But...ahh...... Spring Break. A whole week off. We decided that seeing how Garion is now 8, we had better take that poor boy to Legoland before he was too old to enjoy it or he died of envy because all his friends had been and he had not. Garion loved everything there, but most of all the new roller coaster that hurtles you down a big slope before chucking you back up another one.


I did not ride the down and up-chuck roller coaster. I did ride the dragon roller coaster and discovered that a roller coaster is made all the more terrifying by the sight of your baby sitting in front of you, by himself, with his hands in the air while the contraption that you are both stuck to hurtles around corners at 90-ish degree angles. It took everything I had to suppress the urge to yell "young man put your hands down right this minute!"



The next day we headed down to Cabrillo National Monument, where for once in our lives we were somewhere at precisely the right time, peak tide pool exploring hours. The tide pools were my favorite part of the trip along with the thrill of hearing Garion yell, "Mom! Look--a hermit crab!! Oh, Mom, over here!! Mom, look at this!" He even let me take his picture without making a face:



Possibly this sweetness is why we totally caved when Garion begged to go to Disneyland to ride more roller coasters. Thunder Mountain was his favorite of all the roller coasters and he was so happy to be at Disneyland that he even consented to riding Pirates of the Caribbean twice just to make his mother happy. Garion has informed us that next time, he would like to go to Magic Mountain, please, where they have real roller coasters. So that will be a very special father-son trip.

Looking for Distraction in Snow and Cold

I started this with the intention of writing about yesterday's events in Tucson. But I don't think I can, much. I feel shock and anger and deep sadness for the families of the victims and am still reeling from the shock of the loss that effects so many people I know; a senseless loss that every single person I work and their families are trying to wrap their heads around.
So today I looked for some distraction and comfort in cold and snow. We took our snowshoes and headed out the Nordic Center for a couple of hours today. Cold air and clear sunlight and quiet and crunchy snow and the beautiful cathedral of the pine forest. They worked some of their cleansing magic and I am going to try to hang on to that feeling the rest of this week.

Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

Because I do. You hop on I40 and drive for forever. Then you take an off ramp for a freeway that heads North and drive for another hour. Last weekend I went to visit my college and maid of honor, who now lives in Santa Fe with her husband and two children. I hadn't seen her in over three years. She used that time to produce not one, but two adorable boys who are now 2 years and 3 months old. I used that time to....um.....maintain course.

For whatever reason, we rarely talk. Neither of us is big on the telephone and e-mail just seems inadequate. Despite pretty much never talking, the instant I walked into her house we were chatting away as if we had just seen each other yesterday. She refers to our friendship as the low maintenance kind.

We had an awesome weekend. My friend's husband gamely took charge of both children for the entire day and we went off for some hardcore shoe shopping and gallery browsing. My friend works for a state program that purchases art for state buildings. So awesome is this job that when she asked about a couple of pieces that were not on the gallery floor, the woman working in the gallery went into the back storage area, found the pieces, and set them out for us to look at in a private room under the special lights. Sweet.

Also sweet: I bought cowboy boots. They are awesome. They make Moses roll his eyes.

I'm not sure when I'll get the change to visit my friend again, but I hope it's not another three years. You need to have that person in your life who just effortlessly gets you.

Geronimoooooooo!

Garion has been on a serious Geronimo Stilton kick lately and apparently these books are all the rage among second grade boys. In case you are not hip to the 8 year old scene, Geronimo Stilton is a mouse who lives in, wait for it....Mouseopolis, and runs a newspaper called the the Rodent's Gazette. He has all sorts if improbable adventures and then writes books about them. That's right, the mouse writes the books. Try to keep up. Also, he is something of a reluctant lady's man--I mean lady's mouse--this totally cracks me up.

Anyway, today is library day. When I pulled up to the school I spotted three second grade boys standing around, each with a Geronimo Stilton book in their hands, reading. And Garion was leaning in to read over the shoulder of one of them. That would be four, 7-8 year old boys so excited about books, books for crying out loud, that they were reading them in public in full view of other children while waiting for their parents. Geronimo Stilton, you rock my world.