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Friday, May 28, 2004
Politics (ack! run away! run away!)
I got the following comment from Paula after posting an earlier entry:
Nosy question: What does "politically conservative" mean to you? I mean, it seems to be a fairly broad term. There are conservatives who seem to use ideology as a kneejerk excuse to not care about or make fun of others (Limbaugh springs to mind), but then there are those like John McCain or Bill Whittle (of Eject!Eject!Eject!) who have carefully thought out their viewpoints. And then there are those who simply don't want government to legislate how they spend their money. There are conservative hunters who don't like GWB because his environmental policies tear into their hunting grounds. There are people who want to legislate moral issues and people who don't because they believe in limited government, and on and on. And they all stand under the "conservative" banner. (The term "liberal" is every bit as vague, or more so. I'm not crazy about labels, in general.) Anyway, just curious, and of course you can tell me to mind my own business.
I've always been kind of a blog-lite kind of person, where I write more about amusing and stupid things I do than about issues that occupy my more serious thoughts. But Paula asks a good question here, and I think I'll answer it. Feel free to move on elsewhere (or read my scintillating essay on why all plants ever in my possession will die) if you aren't interested in reading this. Or feel free to discuss (nicely!).
The short answer is, I wholeheartedly agree that "conservative" and "liberal" as labels leave a lot to be desired when it comes to really pinning down what a person thinks. I don't have a standard line that I draw, and a person is "liberal" on one side or "conservative" on the other. I mean, there are belief sets that I would definitely say are liberal, and on the other end there are those I would definitely say are conservative (and frankly, I am pretty solidly in the conservative camp), but there's a lot of space in between where someone may lean one way or the other, but not far, and where it takes five hundred lines of text to define their positions. Which is as it should be; humans are varied and so are our viewpoints and priorities. And as long as we can agree to disagree agreeably, I can be friends with someone pretty much regardless of his or her political views.
Here are my comments on some of the more specific issues raised:
What does "politically conservative" mean to you? I mean, it seems to be a fairly broad term. There are conservatives who seem to use ideology as a kneejerk excuse to not care about or make fun of others (Limbaugh springs to mind)...
I haven't listened to Rush Limbaugh regularly in quite a while (not because I don't like him but because I don't generally have the radio on at that time, and I usually have kids with me), so I can't speak for how he is now, but back when I was a loyal fan, I came to realize that:
a) He grandstands a lot and overdoes a lot of his own arrogance for theatrical reasons -- i.e. he doesn't really believe that he is as totally awesome as he says he is -- although he really should tone that down. When it comes down to it (and Rush says this himself), he's not a journalist. He's a commentator and an entertainer. He's under no obligation to behave in a journalistic manner, and I've heard him jump on people on his show who call him a journalist.
b) He's not as mean-spirited as his detractors say. Speaking of knee-jerk reactions, a LOT of people on the opposite end of the political spectrum throw out that phrase to conservatives, when really (and hey, I am one, and I know a lot of them, so I know) we're no more likely to be uncaring than anyone else. But then I don't think it's uncaring to expect people (and allow them!) to pull their own weight rather than rely on social programs -- which I think a lot of people on the social left disagree with. Back to Rush: I've read both of his early books, years ago (my husband, who wasn't yet my husband at that point, lent them to me; he's been listening to Rush since before he was syndicated, when he was just on Sacramento radio), and I saw logic in them (along with theatrics), but not true mean-spiritedness. Making fun, I can definitely see (there's that entertainer thing again). And while I do my fair share of laughing at various aspects of liberalness among my like-minded family and friends, I certainly wouldn't do that on nationally syndicated radio, but hey, if people want to listen to it, he has a right to say it. (BTW, I think Bush-bashers are far, far more mean-spirited in their attacks than Limbaugh ever is. My GAW, the poor man can't open an Internet browser or walk into a bookstore without seeing someone making fun of him. Whereas Bill Clinton, thanks to all his philandering and Arkansas roots, got a favorable rating as "just a regular guy", a President who doesn't talk like a smooth-selling Rhodes scholar gets labeled "stupid". Whatever. I'd like to hear all the people who throw that label around get up and give an internationally televised speech.)
...but then there are those like John McCain or Bill Whittle (of Eject!Eject!Eject!) who have carefully thought out their viewpoints...
I definitely think Rush has thought out his viewpoints, by the way. :) (and I LOVE Bill Whittle, not so crazy about McCain, but that's neither here nor there.)
And then there are those who simply don't want government to legislate how they spend their money. There are conservative hunters who don't like GWB because his environmental policies tear into their hunting grounds. There are people who want to legislate moral issues and people who don't because they believe in limited government, and on and on. And they all stand under the "conservative" banner.
Well, I didn't start out here thinking I'd just give my stand on each of these issues, but as a way of defining what I meant about myself being politically conservative, I guess that would be a good start. I am fiscally conservative, in that I would rather the government realize that the people's money IS their money, and let as much of it be spent privately as possible. In fact I lean toward the libertarian side of things as far as the role of government is concerned. I am opposed to gun control, think environmental issues have been given FAR too much precedence over personal freedoms, have a strong distrust of government educational systems (and of government in general, really), and just overall I think the government is WAY too big and needs to be trimmed down and let people live their own lives a bit more. But on the ever-present moral issues we differ a bit. Of course the main #1 thing that most people refer to when they mention "legislating moral issues" is abortion -- and I am wholeheartedly opposed to abortion. IMO It's as important to legislate on this particular issue as it is to legislate about any other form of murder. Babies in utero are living human beings who can't protect themselves and hence they are direly in need of governmental protection. I like to say that I am completely pro-choice -- and that choice comes BEFORE sex. I am totally opposed to any woman being forced to become pregnant against her will. Anyone who has sex knows what can happen, even with birth control, and if you are absolutely unable to handle carrying a baby for nine months, then for crying out loud, either have yourself sterilized or keep your clothes on; don't think you can just kill the innocent person you've created if things go wrong. And as far as rape, well, the person who's taken away the woman's choice as to whether or not she should have a child should be punished to the fullest extent of the law -- which should be more extensive than it is, in my opinion. I don't see this as a "women's issue" -- it's a humanity issue. A culture which condones killing its most innocent members for reasons of convenience has some serious problems.
As far as other moral issues, I'm conflicted. My civil libertarian side differs with my moral side. I really do think that legalizing illicit drugs would be harmful to society, but exactly how much the needs of "society" should be put above those of the individual is an age-old question and one I've never found a solid answer to in this area, although I confess that generally I lean toward the "keeping them illegal" camp. And homosexuality is another mental conflict for me -- on the one hand, even though I personally disagree with their lifestyle choices, they have a civil right to live as they wish, and I think even marry, as long as they don't hurt anyone else, just like the rest of us. I can see both sides of that. A lot of Christians say that homosexual marriage devalues marriage, but let's face it, marriage has been devalued for a decade or two, ever since divorce got so easy and living together without marrying became so prevalent. Marriage means a lot to me. It means a lot to most people who marry, and it always will. But with divorce so easy, and the alternative completely without censure, it doesn't mean much to the culture at large, and I doubt homosexual marriage can make that any more true than it already is. On the other -- as a Christian, I know that a nation which embraces those things that God abhors will lose His blessing. Which frankly I think has already happened. But again, the civil libertarian side argues with the "America was founded by Christians on Christian principles" side... and I don't like the battle, and neither side is ever on top for long.
I'm staunchly patriotic (even though our country has a lot of flaws, I still think it rocks); would vote with the Constitution Party (and do on occasion, especially in California elections where frequently there's no discernable difference between the two main parties) except that our flawed two-party system is what we have to work with and until that changes I generally find the Republican candidates closer to my views than the Democrats; am in favor of cleaning house in Iraq (I could do a whole paragraph about this; instead I'll refer you to Bill Whittle's excellent and long Strength essay -- in two parts), but I think we could be doing a better job, especially if we weren't hampered by a media that portrays only the negative stuff we're doing and none of the positive and hence turns the public against what we're doing; am in favor of the death penalty where DNA has found the person undeniably guilty; think the U.S. should get out of the neutered and politicized U.N; and I will fight for the freedom to bring my children up as our family sees fit. No Hillarian global village for me, thankyouverymuch.
Whew! I so totally didn't mean to go into all that. But there it is; discuss at will.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
things I love and hate
I've been thinking about one particular question from that survey two days ago, and as a reward to myself for actually making my bed and picking up the hairbrush(es) next to my desk, I am allowing myself to sit down and type a bit about the thoughts I've been thinking.
The question was, "What's one thing that you both love and hate?" My answer at the time was "Keeping house", which is still true, but I've thought of a few other things that would also answer the question.
- My husband's job. It's a great, steady job that pays well with good benefits. It allows us to have a place to live in and food to eat, even allows me to stay home and raise the kids and homeschool and all that. And it's easier on him physically, and more of a challenge mentally, than his previous career in heavy equipment maintenance. So where's the hatred come in? Well, they're in the middle of the project from hell right now. The self-imposed timeframe his boss (who is also his friend and the only other person working in his department right now) had for it has passed, mostly because the boss was totally insane to think they could possibly get it done in the amount of time he slated for it (the logistics are staggering), especially considering all the man-of-the-hour heroic stuff he wants to do to help out other departments, and his absolute refusal to inconvenience other departments in the slightest (and the inconvenience would indeed be slight) by expecting them to partake of his department's services on his department's schedule. This project is sucking the life out of my husband. He comes home exhausted and stressed out. He's tired all the time but doesn't sleep well. And even under other circumstances, without the bazillion-dollar project, the conflict between the boss's idea of the importance of a day job (the boss has actually been heard to say that a job is more important than a family because the family could leave you but the job never will), and T's, causes stress and conflicts. It is to the point where I have actually had heretical thoughts (and to a woman whose life goal was to be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom, they ARE heretical) about putting the kids in a private school so that I could whip through a few years of nursing school (which two things we would afford how?) so that T could then quit and look for something else while I worked. But realistically that's not going to happen. So. I just hope the stress goes back to at least its normal level before long so that my husband can have his happy life back.
- Living where we live. It's beautiful (most of the year). My family is here. My parents were brought up here so I have that snooty small-town advantage of being a True Local and not just someone who moved here from the big city a mere ten or twenty years ago. The aforementioned stressful-but-better-than-it-could-be job is here and it pays the bills admirably. But it is so, so awfully ridiculously expensive to live in California. Until a few years ago our area was an exception to this, but it's not anymore. And the whole California mindset is so not me. Politically conservative, down-home people (and our area is full of them) are completely disenfranchised in a place where there are two of the biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S., both of which are on the cutting edge of everything shallow and liberal and just basically opposed to the way I want to be able to live. It's getting to the point where I fantasize about living elsewhere. Except I doubt we ever will, because there's too much keeping us here. Oh well; it gives me something to complain about. ;-) And we all need that, don't we.
In other news, both children have discovered a new obsession, to wit: The Lord of the Rings movies, specifically "The Return of the King", which is the only one they've seen, and which we bought on Tuesday. I thought they would be WAY way too scary for them, and they do leave the room during some of the hairiest parts (like, shudder, the Shelob scenes, and at the beginning with the strangling), but the rest of the movie, they love. They've gone around all day today pretending to be Eowyn or Sam or Frodo or Merry or Pippin, building Minas Tirith out of Legos, building Minas Tirith out of blocks and then bombarding it with blocks. C does quite a decent imitation of Gollum -- but nothing like T's, which actually freaks me out and scares me. At some point I'll have to record him doing it and post it. Very very creepy. [shudder] --------
poor tomatoes
Generally? When you have plants? And, you know, you live in California where you get basically no natural moisture on the ground between May and September? Generally it's a good idea to water the plants. Who would have thought. Huh.
We bought tomatoes and planted them on Sunday. What happened was that we tore down my son's playhouse, and when we lifted up the floor, we found that the gophers had done a splendid job of aerating the soil underneath for us. So we thought, what the heck, it's only a few dollars, we'll buy a dozen tomato plants and plant them in this nicely tilled weed-free red soil. And we did. And we watered them. This was Sunday; I resolved to water the tomatoes twice a day. Monday they got watered, twice. Tuesday, I had my son water them at around 3:00 and that was all. Wednesday I, um, forgot that I had tomatoes at all. Until about an hour ago when my husband asked me if I'd watered them yet today. Oops.
I have, on occasion, heard women say that they couldn't possibly have children yet, because they can't even keep their plants alive. Ladies, gather close, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.
Children are way easier to care for than plants.
I am not kidding. Sure, children require a lot more attention. And there's that whole diapers/shoes/paying for college thing. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of work. But the fact is that you're never going to just forget you have a child. Even if, against all maternal instincts (like happens to me sometimes in nightmares), you did manage to forget you had one in your house, the child would remind you in short order. A child will not just sit there and wither and die silently, waiting for you to remember its existence of your own accord. Whereas plants -- my plants especially -- are doomed to do exactly that. That is, if you aren't the meticulous sort of person who actually makes it part of her routine to put water on the darn things, rather than waiting for that maternal instinct thing to kick in. Which, let's face it, it won't. And that means a bleak, short existence for my poor tomato plants.
lazy me
Google hits in the "I don't think I really want to know" category: "pictures of 0utie belly butt0ns" (I get this one ALL THE TIME) and "whack 'i cried'". (note: almost all the google hits I get, especially the strange ones, are during the night.)
And with that said there's really nothing else today except that I am so amazingly lazy that sometimes I surprise even myself. I haven't even made my bed today. I'll walk into my room to get something and think, hmm, I should make that, and rather than spend the, what, two minutes involved, I just walk out again. Ditto with the laundry piled in baskets and the hairbrush that's been lying on the floor right next to my computer desk since last night. Maybe it's a disease. We took this week off school for sanity reasons (mine), since we have had NO down time in a long time and our weekends and evenings are pretty much insanely packed with stuff from two weekends ago until, I dunno, 2014. Approximately. And it's as if having a school vacation is throwing me back into my own school days, when vacation meant Doing Only Those Things I Expressly Wanted To Do Or Which Were Required To Sustain Life. Like, eat, breathe, read, talk on the phone, and go for walks. Pretty much it. If I'd had Internet access then... I shudder to think.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
why I won't get anything done today
How could I displace this?
this is the second new entry in about fourteen hours; don't miss the last one
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
not one but TWO more memes
Copied from KiwiRia
Meme 1:
x. What is your secret guaranteed weeping movie?
OK, this really is a big secret. OK? Don't tell anyone. "Mr. Holland's Opus." The end. Every time.
x. If you could have plastic surgery, what would you have done?
Another really big secret. I'd get my breasts augmented. I AM SO SHALLOW. I'm sorry. But I hate when they disappear when I'm lying on my back. Do everyone's do that? Mine didn't, once upon a time before they served their real purpose in lactation for a total of 3 1/2 years.
x. Do you have a completely irrational fear?
No. Because centipedes are from the devil, it is perfectly rational to go into spasms of disgust and fear whenever one wriggles (augh! nightmare!) across my field of view.
x. What is the little physical habit that gives away your insecure moment?
Good question! ANOTHER secret being divulged; you can always tell I'm feeling insecure because I cross my arms and hold onto my elbows in front of myself.
ha! you were just trying that out to see if you could figure out what I was talking about, weren't you. :)
x. Are you a pyromaniac?
Actually, yes. I love a good burn pile. I love throwing things in it and watching it flare up. I love the blazing heat and the sparks and the smoke. I like to light a piece of paper and see how long before it's ashes. fun fun fun.
x. Do you have too many love interests?
No. Just one. :)
x. Do you know anyone famous?
An author. I work for her.
x. Spontaneous or plan?
Both. Some of each. I like having things planned (especially unpleasant things -- MUCH better planned than spontaneous -- and financial matters) but I like to do things on the spur of the moment as well.
x. Do you know how to play poker?
Yes.
x. What do you carry with you at all times?
My purse (checkbook, pen, sunglasses, lip gloss, ATM card, gas card, library card) and also generally a book, just in case I get caught waiting somewhere and have time to read.
x. What do you miss most about being little?
Irresponsibility. Not just the fact that more of my time was my own, although that was nice -- more time for horseback riding and reading and whatnot -- but also, the fact that nobody else's existence was riding on my capabilities. Someone else was in charge. I wouldn't want it any other way, really, of course we have to grow up and taking on responsibilities is part of that. Also, having someone else make all my decisions would suck really hard. But sometimes I look at my kids and think they don't know how well they have it, when the biggest decision they have to make is "chicken nuggets or cheeseburger?" And of course they don't know, and won't until they grow up and face real life.
x. Are you happy with your given name?
Yes.
x. How much money would it take to get you to give up the Internet for one year?
I think probably ten thousand dollars would do it. Or twelve. A nice round figure, a thousand dollars a month. Assuming I couldn't use the library's internet access either.
x. Do you like yourself and believe in yourself?
Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I want to kick myself in the teeth and say shut UP Rachel. Sometimes I think I'm pretty OK. Sometimes I think I'm hot stuff and a groovy chick and my husband is a very lucky man. But not very often.
x. Do transient, homeless, or starving people bother you?
This is a rather oddly-phrased question. It could be taken two ways. Does it bother me that people are transient, homeless, or starving? Well, yes. In some cases it bothers me that they would rather sit on a street corner with a cardboard sign than go apply for a job washing dishes at the restaurant down the street (but part of me says, hey, whatever works for them. Only part though). In other cases it bothers me that due to crop failure or famine or governmental idiocy or what have you, there are places where there just genuinely isn't enough for people to eat. The other way to take this question is, Am I bothered by the presence of a person meeting one of these descriptions in my general vicinity? Sometimes -- I have a low city-fear threshold -- but not usually.
x. Do you consider yourself to be a nice person?
Yes. Nice to a fault sometimes. I don't do confrontation well.
x. Do you spend more time with your boyfriend or your friends?
I don't have a boyfriend, I have a husband. And I do spend more time with him than with my friends.
x. What's one thing you wish you could do but can't?
ONE thing? Bring sanity and peace to the whole world. Hey, you asked.
x. What is your ideal marriage location?
I'm assuming this actually means wedding -- marriage is what exists after the wedding. I already did get married, in a church with the puffy-sleeved dress and satin-clad bridesmaids and the whole shebang. If I were getting married now instead of at the age of nineteen I'd probably do something lower-key, with less satin and fewer sequins and beads but still very formal, just more intimate. Maybe on the Queen Mary. Or in Yosemite.
x. Which musical instrument do you wish you could play?
I wish I'd kept up with the piano.
x. Favorite fabric?
Depends on my mood and the occasion. I like flannel for winter pajamas; t-shirt material for summer ones. Velvet for formalwear and white cotton and denim for casual clothes. Cotton socks, satin panties and bras.
x. Something you love and hate?
Keeping house. I'm so glad to be able to do it but I really dislike a lot of the daily-grind kind of jobs, like the everlasting laundry and dishes.
x. What kind of bedding do you use?
Cotton. Some white, some floral, some solids.
x. Do you tell your friends about your sex life?
Just the closest of friends, and even then I don't discuss everything.
x. What's one language you want to learn?
Spanish. It would be really practical in California.
x. What do you order at a bar?
I wouldn't know. Once I ordered a Shirley Temple at a bar. But that was when I was, what, sixteen? And it was the first and last time I ordered anything at one.
x. Have you ever pierced your body parts?
Ears. I've had one hole in each since I was six. At fourteen I got an extra set of holes which I used for about five years and then let close over. When I was sitting in Algebra II class my sophomore year, I made a third hole in each with a safety pin, but I never put anything in them and just let them close over right away.
x. Do you have tattoos?
No.
x. Would you ever admit to having done plastic surgery any kind if confronted?
Probably.
x. Do you drive stick?
I can, but right now we have automatics.
x. What's one trait you hate in a person?
Meanness. On purpose, causing others pain just for the sake of being mean, meanness.
x. What kind of watch(es) do you wear?
A six-dollar one from Wal-Mart. Leather band, cream-and-gold-and-black face.
x. Most frivolous purchase?
You know, I really can't think of one. Most of my frivolous spending (and I do plenty!) is on smallish stuff like diet Coke, or on restaurants. It's my husband who buys things and then keeps them for years while hardly using them.
x. Do you consider yourself materialistic?
No.
x. What do you cook the best?
I'm pretty good at a lot of things. Pancakes and eggs, chocolate chip cookies (I am the Jedi Master of chocolate chip cookies and I have never had ANY that I like better than mine), chicken parmigiana, chicken marsala, meatloaf, spaghetti (my own recipe which I developed over the course of a few years when I was in my late teens and early twenties).
x. Favorite writing instrument?:
Either the computer (ha!) or a nice sharp fine-point Bic, the clicky kind, not the lid kind, with a comfort grip.
x. Do you prefer to stand out or blend in?
Blend in. I'm all for being blendy.
x. What kind of books do you like to read?
The list of what I don't like to read is shorter -- that would consist of trash romance, science fiction, and uber-boring nonfiction -- although I love biographies and political science stuff.
x. If you won the lottery, what would you do?
Oh, man, is this not the most asked meme question EVER? Property and a house with a pool, new wing for the town library, new vehicles, blah blah blah.
x. What's one thing you're a sore loser at?
Arguing with my husband. It takes a few hours for me to get over it and make nice.
x. If you don't like a person, how do you show it?
Generally by avoiding him/her.
x. Do you cry in front of friends?
Yes yes yes.
x. What's one thing you like to do alone?
read? pee? bathe? lots of things.
x. Are you a giver or a taker?
Like most all moms, pretty much a giver by necessity if not otherwise.
x. When's the last time you cried?
hmm... I don't remember. It's been a while, probably a couple of weeks.
x. Favorite communication method?
e-mail
x. How many drinks before you're tipsy?
one. And I only know that based on experience from about thirteen years ago. I haven't tried since.
x. Do you ever have to beg?
for what? I have asked my parents for assistance on occasion since my marriage. I've begged my husband to take me out to dinner instead of having to cook.
x. Have you ever done any illegal drugs?
no.
x. Do you think you're cute?
Sometimes. Not usually.
x. Do you have problems changing clothes in front of friends?
Not really close friends.
x. What's the most painful experience you've ever had?
Physical: my third c-section. Emotional: the birth of my middle daughter.
Meme2:
Pick two of your absolute favorites for each category.
1. CD's:Evanescence, and the Mavericks "There Goes My Heart"
2. Movies: "Pride and Prejudice" and "Return to Me"
3. TV shows: Um, Jeopardy?
4. Actors: I never have really picked favorite actors -- as in, I will watch anything with X or Y in it. I tend to like movies with Mel Gibson, I guess.
5. Musicians/Singers: Vivaldi and Chanticleer
6. Books: Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice
7. Journals to read:Chez Miscarriage and The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. I so so so want to put more than two but I am limiting myself.
8. Places to eat:The Olive Garden and a local restaurant called The Red Fox
9. Websites:Eject! Eject! Eject! and the IMDB.
10. Drinks (non-alcoholic): Diet Cherry Coke and plain iced tea (VERY cold)
11. Snack foods: Pringles and peanut-butter Twix
12. Healthy foods: Caesar salad and grilled chicken
13. Holidays:Christmas and Thanksgiving
14. Movie soundtracks:"Pride and Prejudice" and "Shrek"
15. Cancelled TV shows: "Who's the Boss" and "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
16. Guilty Pleasures:Dreyer's ice cream and kid-lit
17. Pizza Toppings:Pepperoni and olives
18. Things to do on a Sunday afternoon:Take a nap and hang out with family
Saturday, May 22, 2004
end of an era
Today I decided that with the house clean and our houseguests gone doing touristy stuff for the day, I would finally give in to LT's patient pleading to take down his "shed".
The worst part of this task -- even worse than the Puff-the-Magic-Dragon-ish nostalgic kind of sadness involved, as my mind replayed the video of the first time the smaller, younger version of my great hulking boy had seen the finished house, and how his face had lit up -- was when I found Shelob's evil twin sister lurking along the floorboards. I am not exaggerating when I say that this black widow spider's body was the size of a small walnut, and her legs were long in proportion. I did not know black widows could be this big. At this point all guilt about doing this without T present evaporated, because one look at that monstrous beast and he'd have been on his way to the emergency room. And to think that this demonic being has been living in my child's playhouse -- next thing you know I'll be finding orcs under his bed (ack, no I won't! the nightmares, the nightmares!). Providentially, I had a hammer in my hand and work gloves on, so the evil thing was dispatched quickly, thoroughly, and with much enthusiasm. [shudder]. --------
Friday, May 21, 2004
pop quiz
I should be in bed now. I really should. I've been busting my butt cleaning all day, and dealing with the stress of getting the kids to clean, and I'm totally exhausted. But here is a little pop quiz before I crash. The subject is "What Will Rachel Learn From Her Experiences Today?"
- If I keep my house clean all the time, it won't be so stressful when I'm going to have guests.
- Hospitality sucks and should be left to people who don't have two of their own personal Tasmanian devils to mess up the house.
- Children should have no toys and only two sets of clothing (one to wear and one to wash), and should sleep in Navy-style bunks in the hall closet, because then cleaning their rooms would be really easy.
*that is so NOT a politically-correct book. Animals bothering us? Kill 'em. Animals with usable skins? Kill 'em. Animals good to eat? Kill 'em. Animals interesting to study? Kill a few. Animal/plant/area that could be useful? Conquer its wildness with our wits and abilities. Really it's all very refreshing. --------
Thursday, May 20, 2004
oh, the thinks I can think!
Thinks I thought last night and today:
- Whilst looking at real estate in other states and politically conservative weblogs: Why in the name of all that is holy do I still live in the state of Kalifornia? I mean, other than the fact that my family is here. And it's really quite a beautiful state with lots of variety. And the ocean and the mountains and stuff. And T has a good job. But other than that. WHY?
- In the parking lot at Costco: It is odd that Costco is the kind of place where you see people holding up lines of cars and making shoppers feel uncomfortable by waiting for someone to get to his/her car and put his/her groceries away so that they can take his/her parking space. This doesn't happen at "lower-class" places like Wal-Mart or Food 4 Less or even Target. Is it because people who are better off are more accustomed to getting what they want even if it inconveniences other people? I dunno. I can use the exercise anyway, so generally I just park far away so I don't have to deal with either waiting in the backed-up line of traffic, or with a covetous jerk in a shiny new car sitting there staring at me while I put Raisin Bran and individually-quick-frozen chicken breasts into my trunk. In fact, on the occasions when I have had to deal with this annoying behavior, if I'm in a particularly snotty mood, I've been known to sit in the car looking at pictures I've just had developed, or checking my grocery list one more time, just to show the jerk that I won't be bullied into hurrying for his sake. (but not if there's a line of innocent sufferers behind him.)
- Driving through the seedier section of Smallish Shopping City: If I owned a store called "Discount Meats and Poultry," and for some strange reason a chicken became spectacularly gory roadkill directly in front of my main entrance, I'd call the city to have it cleaned up right quick. Because that just looks bad, in a horrifically funny kind of way.
I am having a feeling-thin day, which is always nice. I have been really disciplined with my food all week, and I had a new low weigh-in this morning (after maintaining for, what, five months? it's good to see the scale moving again), so that's probably why. Rationally I know that one or two pounds really could not make a difference in my appearance. But the mood lift was nice, especially considering that a lot of other things about today were stressful. I have an unbelievable weekend coming up regarding food: I am hosting one dinner and two breakfasts and packing sack lunches for three total strangers. I have two potlucks to cook for (Sunday and Monday), and then on Tuesday we're having my mother's birthday party which I'm also hosting (and cooking for). It's nuts. And appalling, how much groceries for a series of events like that can cost. It's also the first time our guest apartment will be used, which means that tonight and tomorrow I have a lot of cleaning to do over there. Goody.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2004
separation anxiety
This may seem ludicrous to most of you (OK, all of you. Well, not QUITE all) but I have just for the very first time left my eight-year-old son and his four-year-old sister at the home of one of their friends, just around the corner from our house. Always before the darling boy has needed his mom (or dad or grandparent) on the premises, but this time he was willing to let me leave for twenty minutes. We know these people, we know the kids, he's in good hands, but I'm nervous for that little guy in the biggish body, and how he'll cope. He needs to learn, a bit at a time, that he'll be OK without us, and he needs to learn to use his own mental and emotional and spiritual resources to get through situations that seem scary. Sometimes I wonder if I've created this insecurity with homeschooling, and with my baloney-to-the-idea-of-shoving-them-out-into-the-schoolyard-jungle-at-five-to-cope attitude, but I really think not -- I think he is naturally inclined to be clingy and that public school would have been a disaster in more ways than one for him. His sister would actually handle it better; she's a chirpy, confident little lady with none of her brother's social anxieties.
damn, I've only killed eight minutes typing this. Twelve to go.
I've recently switched to using Mozilla instead of IE. Not because I've become any kind of open-source anti-Gates purist, but because for some unknown reason my popup blocker was letting through about a popup a day, so I uninstalled and reinstalled it, and BANG, all of a sudden I was getting three popups for every page. I'd installed Mozilla months ago, so I could check pages I designed on it (and I know that some of my diary designs have been really impossible to read in it. I'm sorry. I just didn't care at the time. I'm reformed now.), but it is now my default browser and I'm getting it configured to fit my kinks. I still have to brave the wilds of IE to view a few of my favorite diaries **rdhdprincess**ahem**, and I'm slowly getting used to the lack of the transparent effect in my own design. (One has to wonder why the heck the folks at Mozilla can't get on board with this kind of thing). But it's worth it to avoid having to close four windows for every one I open. Plus I have that pristine pure feeling that comes from doing something against the grain, even if that's not the reason I'm doing it.
damn. Still four minutes to go. I think I'll go clean out the toaster.
* * * * * * * N E W S F L A S H * * * * * * *
I just called to have them come home and he requested permission to stay longer. Yay for my brave boy! Next thing I know he'll be asking when he can borrow the car...
Monday, May 17, 2004
three more questions
These are from Jenn. Good questions! (if you're going 'huh?' about this whole three questions thing, see the first paragraph of this entry for an explanation.)
1. what types of dreams/nightmares do you have and what do you make of them?
I don't usually remember what I dream (or dream at all, whichever). But the dreams I do remember are generally pretty classic easily-interpreted dreams. Either I'm losing my teeth (which supposedly means I'm insecure about my appearance, which I can say OK to) or everything possible is going wrong in an out-of-control way, or my husband is nonchalantly announcing that he's leaving, or I'm nonchalantly having an affair, which is something I would never do, and in the dream I'm always worried about hurting my husband, and when I wake up I always feel creeped out (and unreasonably guilty) that I dreamed something so awful. That last type I don't pretend to understand. Sometimes I wonder why God gave us so little control over our dreams.
2. what action would you take if you ever found out that your children smoked pot or drank?
Oh my. I'm glad that this worry is years in the future for me. If this happened the first issue I would address is why they were doing it, and we'd have some serious discussions about that, and then we'd look at where they were getting it, and we'd be pretty hard-nosed about who his/her friends were and what they were doing and how much time they spent unsupervised. As one of my brother's student's mothers used to say to the student, "his world would get a lot smaller for a while." Not just as punishment but to help effect a change in priorities.
3. What do you think you'd be doing with your life if you never got married or had children?
Interesting question! It is amazing how many factors this would depend on. Before I decided to marry I was thinking of heading for a Christian college in Pensacola, Florida -- except I'd pretty much decided NOT to go there for a few reasons. Then I was going to go to the local junior college and "get basics out of the way" while I decided what I wanted to do with my life. I'd just begun to veer away from the idea of teaching, which had been my life goal since fourth grade. (Can you tell that the year I was 18 was a year of HUGE change and upheaval for me?) So I imagine that if I'd not married, I'd probably have wound up with a degree in something (librarianship maybe?), working somewhere near here but probably not actually in town. I'd have an apartment, a cat, hundreds of books, a really great stereo system, and some church friends, and I'd be on the lookout for The One. (Thank GOD I don't have to be doing that. Literally. Thank you, God.) However, I'd probably be a lot better at playing the piano than I am now, and I'd have done more traveling. Definitely not enough of a trade-off to make me wish things were different. :-)
Valerie's three questions
Valerie asked me three questions in reply to Saturday's post so, as promised, here are the answers. Now, Valerie, I forgot to mention that the idea is that you would now post the same request for three questions in YOUR diary. But you certainly don't have to do that.
1. If you could travel overseas, where would you go?
If money was NO object I'd take a world tour on the Queen Elizabeth II. If money were (was? augh) ALMOST no object I'd take the QEII (or the Queen Mary II now, I guess) to England, travel around Europe for three weeks waiting for the return trip, and then come back. However, since money will always be an object ;-), I imagine I'll have to content myself with dream trips for a looooong time. :)
2. Do you have any goals/things in life you would like to accomplish still?
I would like to take college classes in subjects I enjoy. It's not a huge high priority for me, and I'm not sure I'll even ever get a degree, although I probably eventually will; I do not at ALL regret the decision to have children first and do college later. But I would like to do it because I like learning.
3. Would you like to have any more children?
We are not having any more. I always feel like I need to explain that statement. I used to want and plan on having a really large family, but having had a daughter with a congenital heart defect changed a lot of things. And now our family feels truly complete as it is, and selfish as it sounds, I really am enjoying the fact that my children are more self-sufficient, able to communicate, etc. Having a baby again would be sweet but it would mean getting used to a lot of difficult things that I don't have to deal with any more.
That said, if for some reason we had a whole lot of money all at once I would seriously consider adoption, or embryo adoption.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
and now for a very special Saturday-night ramble
Before I proceed with the rest of the entry, there's a kind of a reverse meme I've been wanting to try. The idea is that if you're so inclined, you ask me any three questions you want (using the comments link), and as long as the honest answers won't cross some line in my own personal privacy policy, or make it easier for The Big Bad Internet Stalker to find me, I'll answer them in my diary. Try me. I think it sounds like fun. :)
Now, on with your regularly scheduled rambling entry...
Funny how little things can make a day so much nicer. I've been missing a pair of black slacks for a month. I thought I must have left them at my mom's, except they weren't there, so I began to suspect they'd been abducted by some Van Heusen-loving size 12 aliens, when I thought to check to see if they'd fallen into the brown paper bag in the laundry room which I'd thought held clothes I was gathering up to give away. Except I'd forgotten that I'd actually taken that bag to the thrift store, and that the bag that was actually there was -- ta-da! -- full of clothes we'd changed out of at my mom's when we went there one Sunday after church. And there at the bottom, safe and sound if a bit wrinkled, were my beloved slacks. These are definitely on my top 3 list for Favorite Item of Clothing -- my bottom looks nice in them, my waist looks slim in them, they are actually long enough (shout out to Mary, my fellow high-waters sufferer), and they are a nice true black and they hang just right and oh I love these pants. And I found them just in time for our chorus concert on Monday. yay!
I think the missing slacks and the upcoming chorus concert and the general upheaval going on in my life right now combined to give me a doozy of a dream last night. I had to go perform with the chorus in a concert in the city, only I didn't know where the place was and I found out about the concert just before it started. T and I got separated in the city, I got lost, I finally found the place just as everyone was going on stage and I still had to change... I had brought, instead of my black and whites, a bright BRIGHT yellow ugly satin dress, and no shoes, so I bummed a pair of flip-flops from somebody, and I was trying to find my place on the risers while everyone was staring at me, and all the people in the concert were people I'd gone to junior high with (all junior-high-aged except for me) and it goes on and on. Basically every out-of-control dream element you can come up with was in there, along with a heavy dose of my own personality flaws. I certainly didn't need any help analyzing that one.
Tomorrow's a bit of a crazy day -- we're having three other families over in the afternoon for a barbecue. It's because of this "get to know everyone" thing that our church is putting on -- we get into groups and take turns hosting the whole group for dinner. One of the families coming we already know pretty well, and one we know by sight, but the third is a family I don't think I've ever actually met. Let's see how many stupid things I can be kicking myself for saying by the end of the day, shall we? Well, let me rephrase that. It's not exactly stupid things I say, as in putting my foot in my mouth. Usually. Usually it's just that I talk SO much and don't self-edit enough. What I'm saying seems appropriate at the time, and isn't embarrassing per se, but afterward I cringe when I remember having let the topic stray so far, or having felt the need to explain myself just in case someone didn't pick up on my irony, or something. Basically, a conversation can be a minefield of goofy faux pas for me. Ah well, life is too short to worry about that stuff, right? I can say that now... let's all see how complacent I am about it tomorrow, though.
Friday, May 14, 2004
more like "begrudging rancor"
I am feeling all witty and like writing a diaryland entry. The only problem is, the witty things I keep thinking all have to do with icky bodily-function things that I don't generally like to write about in here. I'll just say this, however. All of you women who have easy, la-dee-da-life-as-usual periods? Be on the alert today because I may well let all the air out of your tires just to make myself feel better.
I was planning a day of staying at home with my rancor today. (And my kids. But I am capable of acting in a non-rancorous manner toward them). But it is looking more and more like I am going to have to go to the city and buy groceries. There comes a point where "Hey, Mom, since you're going to the valley anyway, can I give you some money and you pick up some things for me?" turns into "Mom, I need you to be my personal shopper because in fact I never really grew up." And I think my absolutely-must-have-it-and-it-costs-astronomical-amounts-of-money-in-town list is passing that point. Even though gas is $2.50 a gallon here. Yes, you read that right, two stinking fifty a gallon. Let's hear all of you complain about your, what, $1.90? You poor poor people. aawwwwwwww. (to be fair, that's the foothills take-advantage-of-the-tourists rate. In the valley it's only $2.10 or so.) What is this, Europe?
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Wednesday, May 12, 2004
much much better day
I want to thank everyone for your nice notes wishing C well. She's doing far better today than I (or the doctor we saw in the ER) thought she would be and I honestly and frankly believe that that has a lot to do with all the people who were praying for her. She's basically her normal self with a minor sore throat, and the laceration is looking so much better and less frightening. Incidentally, whenever I've told anyone on the phone today that she is "doing much better", my drama queen has dolefully, emphatically stated, "no, I am not." You would have to be there to fully grasp the pitifulness. She has the makings of a competitive-caliber hypochondriac.
Overall, today was quite a decent day really. Nothing out of the ordinary... which, considering yesterday and its non-stop stress of one sort or another, is a welcome relief. The only excitement we had today was when the pest control guy called at 9:30 and asked if he could come spray inside "before noon", at which we began frantically cleaning up to get things ready, and he showed up at 10:15. When we were so not ready it was not even funny. ah well. At least it wasn't my father-in-law. (if you want to make your wife nuts, inform her ten minutes before you must leave for lunch with her extremely fussy in-laws that they are coming by afterward to visit, and then act all astonished when that upsets her. Go ahead, try it. But don't tell her you got the idea from me, OK?)
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my poor little princess
If you need something to distract you from the fact that you have a zillion things to do before your husband gets home in five minutes, having your precious darling daughter injure herself in a most disconcerting way can prove very effective. However, I doubt it's worth it. You know how our mothers always told us not to play with sticks in our mouths? And now we tell our children the same thing? And you know how sometimes kids just don't pay attention and they have to learn things the hard way? Yeah. My poor baby girl has a deepish laceration just forward of her right tonsil about the size of my pinky fingernail. It makes me choke up just thinking about it -- and about how much worse it could have been.
This was C's first emergency room visit, and I think initially the fear about that was worse than the pain. Now the pain has surpassed that pretty thoroughly, however. And now I'm facing another episode of the hardest part of motherhood -- which isn't sleepless nights or stressful days or even watching my children grow up and away from me; it's watching my child suffer and not being able to do a single thing to make it better. Right now she's asleep, but I know that before long she'll wake up in pain and cry and the crying will make it worse and that'll make her cry more, and I'll hold her and cry because I can't help her. And this should go on for probably two weeks or so. This all makes the rest of the problems I was whining about today look pretty stupid.
And her poor brother, who was partly responsible for the accident, was just horrified at what he did to his beloved sister. And I feel a huge load of Mom-guilt even though moms around the world have to take their eyes off their kids periodically and it's not my fault, right? Tell that to good old Nameless Dread, which at least has a name tonight.
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Monday, May 10, 2004
this is why I should never volunteer for anything
I just made a flyer for our community chorus's concert coming up next week. (you all are invited. It will be awesome, of course. Plus then you get to smell my very favorite smell: high-school auditorium. YUM. Wish I could bottle it and wear it.*) ANyway. I am, let's just say, less than great at making flyers and stuff like that, which is exactly why I'm the PR person for the chorus, right? Or maybe it's because I showed up at the committee-forming meeting last summer, and EVERYONE who showed up got a job, and it was that or secretary and I genuinely, utterly SUCK at taking minutes. SUCK. So. I am the PR person, and as such my job was to make this flyer to stick in windows around town to beg people to come pay $4 for a rather amateur concert. And this was the hardest job I have done in ages. Potty-train? easy. Teach multiplication tables? A total cinch. Put together my awesome and wonderful porch swing? really a lot of fun. But it took me a mouth-breathing two hours to finally produce a flyer that didn't make me want to throw myself off a cliff so as to never have to see anyone in the chorus again. And even as it is I may have to wear a disguise next time I see them all.
First the flyer was just this plain vanilla boring THING, so I was furiously searching the Internet for clip art that a) was free b) did not depict cartoonishly-stupid people singing with their uvulas showing and c) had something faintly to do with music (this is harder than you may think). I got the brilliant idea to use a staff of musical notes at the top and the bottom, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, because of this: I discovered just tonight that I have a major pet peeve, and that is staffs of music used for decoration that are absolute rubbish and aren't real music. I always knew that I liked to take my Peanuts comic books and play the music above Schroeder's head on the piano (it was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor once, which is, I have to say, the only piece of music ever composed for the organ that I actually like), but I never realized the depth of my obsession with this until I couldn't bring myself to use the usual mumbo-jumbo meaningless tripe for a stinking BORDER, which nine-tenths of the people who view it will simply absorb as background without fully seeing it. All was happy, however, when I found an online source for sheet music and was able to use a staff from an actual song which we are actually singing. And now I can go to bed, musical integrity intact, although I'm not going to be applying for a job as a graphic designer anytime soon.
*you know how everyone always says this about fragrances they like? I was in a perfume outlet store in Florida and saw that someone has actually TRIED. They had a little display of bottles of perfume scented like dirt, grass, rain, and an assortment of even more bizarre things which I can't remember offhand. I thought, huh, what a neat idea, and sprayed one, and you know what? The whole idea of wearing the scent of grass is really scary when it comes right down to it. That stuff STANK.
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Friday, May 07, 2004
Happy Mother's Day To Me
Recipe for an improved day:
1 son with a recycling habit
About fifty pounds recyclable beverage containers
1 daughter with a roll of quarters
1 set of parents, middle-aged, in on the kids' scheme
1 husband, likewise in on the scheme
1 frustrated mommy
1 Lowes ad
1 PORCH SWING, which the mommy's only wanted for, oh, say, eight or ten years.
I had some idea this was coming -- neither of my children are great at keeping secrets, and they'd gone with my parents to trade in LT's recycling this afternoon. But I wasn't sure until the kids arrived home with this big box:
An eight-year-old and a four-year-old, deciding of their own accord (nobody told them to do this! they just knew I wanted a porch swing and had heard me mention in passing that there was one in the Lowe's ad for $70) to pool all the money they have to get their mother a Mother's Day present? That's THE SWEETEST THING I ever heard. I am compelled to hug them, hard, every time I go past one of them. Anyway, T wasn't home yet so the kids and I put it together.
This whole thing just completely turned my day around. It didn't fix any problems, but hey, who cares. :)
Early in the project, a progress picture
C took this one. Whoops.
LT as the photographer
We were using C's hat as a work bucket. (how Mothers-Dayish of us, no?) Note the owner wiggling her way into the picture -- if there's a camera in the vicinity she thinks she absolutely must be in front of it.
That's me, sitting on the finished product. Don't we all love how wonderful our bottoms and legs look when we're photographed sitting down in shorts? grr.
Another one by LT
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blissful contentment, my %*#
If I believed in astrology I would say that there was something really screwed up in the sky last night. Because yesterday and today? they just bite. (Maybe it's the comets?). Yesterday was just an all-around general kids-crazy mom-crazy every-freaking-child-in-the-Awana-program-crazy day. Then I came home from being The Happiest Awana Leader On Earth, and smelled propane in the house, and to make a long story short, we're totally out of propane and they'll have to deliver some today and our bill will be astronomical and I don't even want to THINK about that because our OTHER bills (like, say, GASOLINE) are also freaking enormous, and now! now! I just went to check the amount of overtime in my husband's check, in their handy-dandy online service thingie, and EVERYTHING SAYS ZERO. Zero hours worked (instead of, hello, ninety?), zero dollars hitting our bank account on Monday, zero zero zero. I don't like all those zeroes. Of all the weeks for them to screw up! This is juuuuust fantastic. Also, poor C is sick, and she coughed all night, and she's been dry at night for weeks, but last night she wasn't, and it wasn't like I didn't already have enough laundry piling up. You know. Even the KITTENS are joining in by having diarrhea ("diary", as C calls it, and, well, the way today's entry is going, I can see the similarity).
I have got to try to pull this day out of the suck tank. Any ideas how (aside from packing the hubby, the kids, and the cats into the car and fleeing without leaving a forwarding address), please pass them on. For right now I'm going to try a diet Coke and a fluff novel, with a cat on my lap. I'll let you know how it goes.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Update item 1: Our landlord is coming up today. This would be the landlord who doesn't know we have cats. Ordinarily he doesn't come in the house. But you just know that today he will.
Update item 2: Immediately after I arranged for the propane guy to come give us some hot water and oven-ly goodness, the propane BILLING department called to let me know just exactly how high my account balance is. Which I knew. The thing is, there's a big check in the mail to them (really!), and my landlord is going to pay the bill for the new tank for the apartment TODAY, yes TODAY (that is unless he gets killed in an auto accident on the way here, and his children decide to move into this house, thus rendering us homeless, because after all, this is the suckiest day EVER and who knows what you can expect). I know this. But they didn't. And getting a phone call like that is Just No Fun.
Update item 3: The paycheck will indeed be late, thanks to a bureaucratic screwup in T's payroll office. Fun stuff.
I'm telling you, the "no forwarding address" thing is looking better by the minute. --------
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
small-town drama
Here is small-town drama* for you: This morning I woke up kind of early, because my parents were bringing something by on my mom's way to work, and when I opened the door, I was greeted by the sight of a ten-foot geyser of water spraying from the water main that runs down the other side of our street. And you know what? When I called the public utility people about it, all I had to say was, "that pipe up by the Greens'** is really acting up again." And boom, they showed up.
*actually, this isn't the most dramatic thing to ever happen here. About six months ago there was a truck delivering propane that almost rolled down an embankment, and would have crashed into some enormous propane tanks, and they had to evacuate half the town (fortunately for me and my eight-hours-of-sleep habit, it was the other half) just in case there was a huge explosion. And once, the high-school science teacher/cheerleading advisor left his wife and ran off with one of his students/cheerleaders as soon as she graduated. And then they came BACK to town, which in a place like this, takes a lot of guts. And then he shot at her -- which was in the paper, oh that weekly paper LOVES it when something sordid happens -- so now they're divorced. And people think small towns are boring.
**not my name, the name of the folks across the street, and heck, this IS the internet, it's not even THEIR real name
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Tuesday, May 04, 2004
kid questions
Today I took the ten kid question from Art Linkletter's humor classic Kids Say the Darndest Things.
What are some things you do that get you into trouble?
LT: Destroying some things of C's. [Why do you do that?] I don't know.
C: Disobey. Being bad. Biting.
If I gave you five dollars right now, what would you spend it on?
LT: Go to the 99c store and buy five things.
C: Something that costs five dollars. A dolly.
Tell me about your pets.
LT: Our fish like to just swim around, and our cats like to eat food and sit on people's laps.
C: They are fun. They're cute. They like to eat cat food and drink water and milk.
What kinds of things would you do if you were a doctor?
LT: I would drive the ambulance.
C: Help people by making them better.
How would you settle an argument with another boy/girl?
LT: Say "Stop it. Now believe me!"
C: Stop talking.
What do you want life to be like when you're grown up?
LT: I don't know. [Use your imagination]. Good. [OK, then, what are some things that you DON'T want to happen in your life?] Going to war. [Anything else?] No.
C: Happy. [What would make your life happy?] Having pets, and still being able to ride my bike. A bigger one, though.
How does television work?
LT: From the television station. Because of the video.
C: I don't know.
How can you tell if a person's smart?
LT: If he knows how to build an AT-AT.
C: Because they do what they're supposed to do without being told to. And remember when I made my bed all by myself?
Where does the sun go at night?
LT: On the other side of the world.
C: Down.
What would you like to tell the whole world?
LT: Never to buy My Little Pony stuff. I said that one because C was right in here. She'll never say that one.
C: That I can do things without being told to.
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Sunday, May 02, 2004
nap. or not.
Things which just woke me from the nap I was attempting to take, at my husband's suggestion (not because I was cranky, just because he was being nice):
- The cordless phone being dropped. Four times, each just... as... I... was... dropping... off. By my son, who wasn't using it, just fiddling with it.
- My daughter bringing me kitties.
- Said daughter running in and out through the screen door five hundred gazillion times.
- My husband yelling at our daughter to tell her not to go in and out through the screen door so much, she'd wake Mommy.
- Daughter needing her bottom wiped, with Daddy nowhere to be found.
- My son walking into my room to ask me, without preamble, where his father was. (answer: apparently, he was outside about to crank up the lawn mower. And my window was open.)
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"What A Girl Wants"
I just finished watching "What A Girl Wants", because Miss Doxie forced me to. Or, OK, she reviewed the movie, in a hilarious weblog sort of way, and that made me need to watch it. Same thing. She's the one that calls it cinematic crack or something to that effect. (by the way, if you want a review, read hers, at the link above. In fact, just skip the rest of this entry and read her journal archives instead. I am in awe of her and so totally not worthy to even link my paltry excuse for a diary to her page. Dave Barry would totally be her humor acolyte if he knew her, following her around kissing the hem of her garment. She is that funny.)Anyway, I digress. There were a few redeeming aspects of this movie, in my opinion:
- Watching Anna Chancellor, playing a haughty, snobby, class-conscious vixen, fail to catch Colin Firth, playing a wealthy and eligible society man. And yet it's not "Pride and Prejudice." Actually, that was maybe kind of creepy.
- Seeing Kelly Preston, who played the valley girl with the photographic memory in "Space Camp", play a middle-aged mother. Wait, that was kind of creepy too.
- Watching the grandmother blow stuff up while shooting skeet. I actually laughed. Whereas the sounds I made during the rest of the movie were much closer to gagging.
