I have been in such a bad mood lately, I'm not sure why but (oh, hello again, long time!) I think it has something to do with the treadmill that is my life. And I just found out that I'm moving to an office with no windows. I can't even type that without getting teary.
Anyway, enough blubbering. This made me happy--hope you like it too!
I can't tell you how much I loved our vacation this year, in the beautiful Champlain Islands in Vermont.
We did so little--we rode our bikes, swam in the lake, read, played games, did lots of crafts (pot holders, popsicle stick houses, tissue paper on glass collage, tie-dye t-shirts), and ate constantly. I'm sorely missing it.
Here are some photos.
Kurt and I watched a lot of Brian Reegan's comedy while we were up there. He's is REALLY funny. He makes me laugh so hard my stomach hurts. Here are links to a few of the funnier bits from one of his shows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ogZo9YreQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJTGAA_2Lto
Oh, and I read a few books--Self Made Man, by Norah Vincent. She disguised herself and lived as a man for a year and a half--how brave is that?! It's very funny and she offers a surprisingly sympathetic perspective on being a guy in America in the early 21st century. I liked it a lot.
I also read Chuck Klosterman IV (heisted from Liz), an anthology of his essays that have appeared in various magazines over the last ten years or so.
And finally, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion which I didn't like so much. She's one of these writers that I feel like I'm supposed to like so I keep reading her books but I think I'm done--it's not for me.
On our drive back yesterday we were behind the same car for about a half hour. It had vanity plates with roses on it and said "GAIL 1". There were also lots of ribbons--"Find a Cure" (pink), "Support Our Troops" (light blue that used to be red, white and blue), "LIVESTRONG" (yellow--can someone tell me what this one means?).
I didn't see much of this in Alburgh, VT--I'm already looking forward to exactly the same vacation next year.
Hope to see everyone soon.
I got into this weird habit of putting periods at the end of my titles--I have no idea why I was doing that but just as inexplicably have decided to stop. It's sort of like my short-lived alias(s). I have no idea why I was doing that either.
Well, I guess I do. In the beginning I had what I thought was a pretty good reason for the aliases and then decided I was thinking about it too much (obviously not doing that anymore, ;)
And I guess there was a part of me that was worried about identity theft, which has never happened to me, and which I don't know much about, but is one of those things we're supposed to worry about. What else can I add to that list? Global warming, disappearing honey bees, terrorism, breast cancer, the deer population, pit bulls.
Speaking of identity theft, I went to my first Board of Trustees meeting in South Orange last Monday. Anyone from the general public who wishes to comment on an issue must stand at a podium, and first give their name and address. This is like an identity thieves dream! I heard some of what people were saying but was mostly thinking about how easy it would be for an identity thieve to walk into the meeting and start gathering info. I was abruptly shaken out of that train of thought when a woman went to the podium to announce that Alliance Bank was hosting a free 'info session' on Identity Theft!
This was so funny, I think I actually slapped my knee and then looked around the room, hoping for a smile or something from someone to acknowledge the irony. But everyone was just calmly listening to her, except for a few people who nervously looked over to see why I was slapping my knee. I had to quickly pretend that I had a bug on my knee and slapped it a few more times.
So obviously I'm going to be making a big contribution to our town--I'll keep you posted...
This is a short post that, if you're anything like me, will absorb the next eight hours of your time.
I came upon this site I don't know how, probably from the NYTimes, but I love the design, it's comfy and cool at the same time:
You can tell that the Renegade Craft Fair is a cool thing because there is an Owl in the picture. Owls are everywhere this summer. Has anyone noticed all the Owls?
Sadly I missed the Renegade Craft fair but spent about the same amount of time that I would have spent traveling to Brooklyn and looking at all the stuff as I did on the web site.
WARNING: This web site is dangerous (fuck, there's that word again), especially the 'Vendors' section. DO NOT go there if you like to look at cute, crafty handmade things. You will surely waste many hours and end up making a big fuss with your four year-old about how you're going to have breakfast for dinner, without mentioning that it's because you're a loser who spent the entire day on renegade.com.
Another site I found through Renegade (about six sites removed--sigh) was:
Doesn't that model look like Liz?!! Anyway, they also have cute things.
I sometimes wonder if I'll ever stop liking things that seem to appeal mostly to twenty-somethings. At this point, probably not. I'll be the old lady with the cool t-shirt.
Today is Father's Day. Although I already had a gift at the ready, we found ourselves at the Short Hills Mall, or, excuse me, The Mall at Short Hills yesterday. We had dinner at Lars' new favorite place, California Pizza Kitchen, and went for a stroll through the mall after.
Of course there were lots of ads for Father's Day plastered throughout. Restoration Hardware featured a man, presumably a Dad (but I'm not sure since there were no children in the photo) in his 30s-40s, standing next to a very expensive looking grill and swilling wine in the largest wine glass I've ever seen.
JCrew featured a guy, a boy really--he couldn't have been older than 23--beautifully dressed and standing next to a boy of around 5. It's Father's Day, not Big Brother's Day! I'm not saying that there aren't 18 year old fathers out there--I knew a few in high school--but they usually are not clad head to toe in JCrew and standing on a beach in the Caribbean.
After about 20 more minutes of these types of ads I thought to myself, "when did all men become so gay?". Okay, I'm being cheeky--and not that being gay is a bad thing--this is very important--I'm not making a value judgement on being gay. I'm just wondering when straight men became so domesticated. When I was a girl, an appreciation for "proper" wine glasses (not the wine--but the glasses--there's a big difference) and white linen pants belonged exclusively to homosexuals.
I'm not saying that I want to turn the clock back 30 years. The limits on women during my Mom's time were not lost on me. I love it that I can work AND be a Mom; I appreciate the progress that's been made. But I wonder if we've all lost something in the process.
I read an article recently about how small airports around the nation are not offering classes for amateur pilots anymore because no one is signing-up for the classes. No one knows exactly why this is happening, but some economists/sociologists thing it's part of a larger trend of men's "hobbies" slowly going away. Men don't have workshops in the basement like they used to; they don't golf as much as they used to; they don't become pilots as much as they used to. Why are their hobbies going away? Because they devote more time to childcare and helping around the house.
And again, I don't think it's a bad thing that men are helping out more around the house. But I guess there's a part of me that longs for the days when the "world of men" was a little more mysterious; when they didn't have to answer to anyone. I guess I'm missing my Dad a little bit on this Father's Day. By today's standards he was a horrible husband and father, but he was such an awesome man.
Okay, total opposite experience from last week--this week, instead of having nothing to write about, I have only one thing I could write about, think about--tomorrow I am going to see the lovely Miss Leslie Feist LIVE (I'm so excited!!!) at Town Hall in NYC.
I'm trying to put a finger on what it is I like so much about her. Her music, yes--her voice is amazing, her lyrics, while often about love, loss, etc., are original enough that I don't feel silly listening to them.
Her stuff is has an "unproduced" sound and is often recorded in one take (so I've heard). This also comes through in her videos. She dances in all of them and in my opinion she's a great dancer but some people are critical, I think because she doesn't edit out every misstep.
She's sort of the antithesis of Madonna, who has so carefully guarded her image for the last 20 years that it's sometimes hard to imagine an actual person in that tense, muscle-bound little body. The aura of perfection does not surround Feist, nor does she seem interested in pursuing it. She's so laid-back about her enormous talents.
And I guess this is what I like.
(Thanks Angela for telling me about embedding videos).
The other day, on my way home from work, I noticed a little spider crawling across my windshield. I was listening to music, at a red light, and got kind of lost in it's delicate, repetitious movement.
Unfortunately I forgot that my wipers were on intermittent and in a second the little spider was crushed. It was so sad, but I had to laugh. This must be a metaphor for something...
ohmygod, I'm at such a loss today. It's like I'm some kind of lower life form, I really don't have a worthwhile thought in my head. Is it the heat? I envy Kris right now because I know she's sitting by the lake and enjoying a cool drink, I mean, breeze.
Note to self: buy a lake house.
Seriously, this is what I'm thinking right now:
I like those shoes in the Garnet Hill catalog.
What am I going to make for the potluck dinner on Monday night?
I need to get back to Wooden You Know to see if they have the Slip n Slides in yet.
Why the fuck don't I have air conditioning?
That's a good question. We have 3 almost brand new window units sitting in various closets around the house. I care about the environment, yes, but not so much that I'd sweat for 3 months straight to reduce my carbon footprint. No, that's not it. I really think it's just laziness. We don't leave the window units in year round because we lose the cross ventilation in many rooms (I could really use some of that right now).
So every year when it gets up to about 90 degrees we talk about putting the A/C in. And then we check the weather forecast and say "oh, it'll be cool again in two days, we can tough it out". Subtext: we don't have to lug those heavy metal objects out of the bottom of a dusty closet and curse at each other in 90 degree heat while we half-assedly install them improperly. Nah, let's not do that.
And we have that conversation 3 or 4 more times over the course of the summer, and voila! it's September, and the cross ventilation is back in full-swing.
For further proof that I'm lazy, here's a game used by only the laziest of bloggers:
Ten things about me:
One: If I could eat only one thing for the rest of my life, I’d eat potato chips. The good ones, not like Pringles.
Two: If I could drink only one thing for the rest of my life, I’d drink a chocolate shake--great with chips!
Three: If I could befriend any living celebrity, I’d befriend Julia Roberts.
Four: If I could befriend any dead celebrity, I’d befriend Lucille Ball.
Five: If I could buy anything, I'd buy a ranch out west.
Six: If I could have any animal as a pet, I’d have a chimp.
Seven: If I could have any superpower, I’d be like Samantha Stevens. Oh wait, I'm already a witch, HAHAHA.
Eight: If I could have any wish in the world, I’d wish that no one would ever starve to death again.
Nine: If I could go anywhere in the world, I’d go to Papua New Guinea.
Ten: If I could have any ability, it would be to play guitar.
It’s Sunday 5-27-07. Since early May my husband has been on a “big project”. He finished it last Friday and then promptly left town for a few days. When he got back there were “loose ends” that needed attention. Maybe you’re on to me, to where I’m going with this…
It’s been a while since I’ve had "me" time. But it’s now 10:47am and they’ve just left for the entire day. It’s so funny, sometimes I practically beg them to get out of the house because I sense a nervous breakdown approaching. And when they finally do, I’m all “really, you guys are leaving? Oh really, you won’t be home for dinner? You don’t have to go for that long”.
What the fuck is that? It's a lot of things, and when taken together it adds up to I-D-I-O-T. I should stop doing that.
Anyway, as soon as they pulled out of the driveway I rushed upstairs to write my first blog entry. Well, sort of. This is from long ago. I spent many years in art school. Maybe too many.
Good movies about art school: |
(I'm such a show-off) |
I made a few attempts for the new blog earlier in the week.
The first attempt:
I’d like to be able to post my blog entries with stories of how I:
Instead I have this to say. I’m having a really tough time right now because my son is always mad at me. He’s four. I can’t figure this out and sometimes worry that he’s an ambitious sort who has started adolescence ten years early.
But he’s always pissed. It's as if he's incapable of speaking to me in a normal voice. Sometimes it’s from behind clenched teeth. Sometimes he clenches his teeth so hard that his head vibrates. Sometimes it’s whining. And sometimes it’s a low whisper/clenched teeth combination that would be a little frightening if I didn’t do the same thing (not to him, just my husband).
I actually caught myself feeling chipper on Monday morning as I was getting ready for work. I think that's because I was going to my office, a place where:
I had plans that night that I canceled, because I’m going to beat this thing dammit! But when I got to his school there was a MAJOR disappointment involving a balloon so it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. And I clenched my teeth while he sulked.
The following night was not much different.
The next night when I picked him up I was so tired of thinking about it and, after so many frustrations of the previous week I could not focus on our dysfunction anymore.
“Do you remember the ugly bush?”, I asked.
“No”.
“We’re going to dig that up when we get home”.
Silence.
We first had to prune the branches, and then there was a pretty big stump to dig out. We both dug like crazy for about an hour. I was truly surprised that he was strong enough to pull it out himself. Here’s the angry little man. He seems a little happier toward the end, no? The moral of this story: digging is good.
The second:
My first blog entry! I‘ve had a little more time to think about this than most everyone else, so there’s a part of me that has so many ideas to throw out there. But I don’t know how I could say anything without mentioning my “blogmates”.
I’m not the most involved person with our “group”. I’m probably the least. But I’m also the one who didn’t go to her prom, didn’t go to her college graduation, was the last American virgin, eloped, etc. I guess you could say that I’m a loner.
So it's surprising to me that I'm part of a "group" but I don't know what I would have done the last four years without the S7.
I might have been having a little PMS when I wrote that but it's all true...
Until next week...
