sputtering to a stop

maura @ 9:24 pm

Well, that’s it, this NaBloPoMo thing has ended for this year. I feel a bit blah about it compared to years past. I did blag every day, it’s true, but it doesn’t seem like I really gave it my all. There were a few meaty posts, but mostly they were short + very picturey.

Ah well, that’s the way it goes. I guess with the superbusy class time of the semester in the first half of this month, my energies were not as available for writing. Maybe next year I’ll have figured out how to devote more time to writing even during the teaching crush.

Or maybe I’ll just prewrite a bunch of blags before I get too busy, and post them sneakily each day, as if they were written fresh + new! Except that I’ve just blown my cover, dang.

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wizard needs food badly

maura @ 10:27 pm

Nothing like spending 5 hrs on the NJ Turnpike to make you realize that the future looks awfully much like the past. I mean, honestly, it could have been 30 yrs ago and our drive would have been almost exactly the same as today. Probably less traffic, but the roads are certainly the same. The infrastructure is identical.

In some ways we’ve achieved the dream of the 1950s: everyone cruises around in their own personal climate controlled bubble, listening to music, watching TV, eating and drinking whenever they feel like it. It’s car as living room, as Jonathan said earlier.

I don’t know. It’s not that I’m not grateful for all of the cool future stuff that we do have. This video (which Jonathan sent me from bing bong, I believe) is a hilarious reminder of that. And we certainly took advantage of the advances this afternoon + evening, when Gus watched Castle in the Sky three (3!) times while we were stuck in horrible traffic.

BUT. But, but, but. It’s hard to believe that we couldn’t have used all of our fantastic futurizing powers to do something better. Superfast trains that don’t pollute the way cars do (and are cheaper to run, too). Eco-energy, from cleaner power plants to better ways of moving electricity over long distances (though I do like the aesthetics of those giant electrical towers — they look like robots).

I don’t know, it’s just disappointing, I guess. Cars are stupid. And I’d even give up my iphone for a better train system. Though if I did, what would I use to read my web stories en route?

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but the very next day you gave it away

maura @ 8:14 pm

Why is the lame Wham Christmas song in my head? A friend asked for fave xmas songs on facebook, and I said “Christmas in Hollis” and the entire Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. But someone else said Wham. I mentioned this to Jonathan yesterday and he claims to have no recollection of the Wham song at all, even after I made him watch the video on YouTube. Which I guess makes sense, because he was never a 15 yr old girl.

I was telling my sister about this yesterday and she brought up Music and Lyrics, the movie I’ve been trying to forget for ages. And now the songs are right back in my head again, dammit.

Have I said this before? Since we don’t have cable (and don’t watch live TV because the rabbit ears aren’t very good), we don’t really get to see commercials much. And apparently I’ve completely lost the ability to tune them out. Seriously, it took me like 10 minutes to write this blag, because my brother in law is channel surfing on the sofa next to me.

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gobble gobble

maura @ 7:43 pm

The dinner’s been consumed (dessert too), and Gus is in hog heaven: playing Link’s Crossbow Training on my BIL’s Wii w/surround sound. We had some iconic fall moments this afternoon raking leaves so Gus could jump into a pile of them a la Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (”never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker”). AND we didn’t even hit traffic on the SIE and NJT today. Much to be thankful for!

Don’t forget, tomorrow is Buy Nothing Day! Sadly, tomorrow we might actually have to buy something, since it’d be rude to eat all of my sister’s food + not pick up dinner in exchange for crashing at their pad. But dinner’s hardly frivolous, so I think we get a pass on that.

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ha! bet you thought i’d forgotten

maura @ 11:47 pm

But no, I was just working on the article I’m writing with a colleague, which is so close to being done that I can almost taste it! Very exciting.

You may have noticed that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Happy turkey day to one and all! While I will be enjoying the visit with family members (and the company of cousins to play with my kid), I’ll greet the day* with my annual end-of-year freakout.

* The day which starts in 16 minutes. Holy cow, I have to get to sleep!

Which goes something like this:

If it’s Thanksgiving, that means that (usually) Gus’s birthday is next week. This year we are too busy to dream up crazy elaborate plans for a home party requiring a multi-location treasure hunt and hand-sewn and hand-jolly-roger-stenciled bags full of chocolate coins. Plus, Gus ASKED for a family party. Huzzah!

But that doesn’t mean that we’re ready. There’s still cupcakes to make for school, and we only have 1/3 of his presents.

And then, as if that’s not bad enough, apparently Christmas is in 28 days. It’s like 28 Days Later, except without the flesh-eating zombies. Or maybe with the zombies, if I have to enter a shopping establishment. Suffice it to say that no presents have yet been acquired. Not sure if we’ll have the gumption to enact our traditional baking-for-the-extended-family plan, either.

I had high hopes that this would be a handmade Xmas. I made an adorable (if I may toot my own horn) tiny purse for my niece for her 2nd birthday earlier this year, and wanted to make one each for my other 2 nieces, plus an apron for Gus (his old one is too small). But I am just outta time.

Everyone gets books this year, from Auntie Nerd the Librarian!

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the leaders of men

maura @ 9:52 pm

So I meant to write a real post tonight, but then all of a sudden we noticed that Gus’s cheeks are very red. Further examination revealed that apparently he has a blotchy (and somewhat itchy) rash nearly all over his body. Doctor Intarwebs suggests Fifth Disease, but we are withholding final judgement until we visit a real live doctor tomorrow.

Of course this is all complicated by the fact that Gus’s current pediatricians don’t take our new insurance, and since he hasn’t been sick or needed a checkup we haven’t gotten around to finding a replacement yet. I guess we’ll be cold calling the pediatricians of Brooklyn in the morning.

Blargh, why do these things always happen at 8pm on a school night?

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i won’t tell you, but if you only knew

maura @ 9:37 pm

On the heels of last night’s longish post, well, here’s a cop out. I had some insomnia last night and I’m tired, and I want to read the (fiction!) book I got from the library last weekend. It’s a kids book w/a gorgeous cover written by a fellow citizen of the CUNYverse; hope it doesn’t disappoint.

So I leave you with this, which is apparently what happens every day after Jonathan gets home from the coop and leaves his backpack open on the floor as he’s unloading it. And today he took a picture.

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whoops, nearly forgot a title there

maura @ 9:23 pm

So yesterday would have been our last day of soccer, except that we ditched it a couple of weeks ago. Gus was just not into it, and we were tired of dragging a complaining kid all the way down to the bottom of the park so he could be the first one to volunteer not to go in (and roll around on the astroturf). The games were much sportier this season–we moved up an age bracket–and, while I think he does like running around and kicking the ball, he’s definitely not a star player, and doesn’t really get the whole dribbling-passing-shooting thing.

Me? I’m torn on it. Despite all of my whining I do like having something to do on a weekend morning. Gus has more AM energy than PM (until bedtime, of course), and the day always seems to go better when we get out of the house. Though we can certainly find a class or something else to do on the weekends. (I’m going to call about ice skating tomorrow!)

I am pretty far down the sporty ladder (on the klutzy rungs), but I did play soccer as a kid and it really seemed like something Gus could like, too. But I don’t know, most of the time I think the whole team sports thing is bungus. Of course it’s important to be able to work in a group. But I also think that kids get a lot of group work in many different contexts at school, from playing at recess to more organized things like gym class and building projects, etc. So I don’t really think that you HAVE to play sports to learn to be part of a team.

More than anything what keeps me worrying about sports/no sports is that horrible word: normal. Isn’t it normal for boys to like sports? Will other kids think he’s weird if he doesn’t?

(I fully realize that these are my own childhood demons rearing their ugly heads — I always felt like a nerdy weirdo, even when I had a group of good friends. Until college, of course, because you can’t feel like a nerd when you’re surrounded by other nerds!)

But it’s stupid for me to worry, for so many reasons:
1. No one is weird in NYC, because everyone is. That’s one of the reasons why we live here!

2. I have never seen such a strong sense of self-confidence in a small person than I see in Gus. Seriously, when he was about 3 he once shouted a kid twice his age (and 3x his size) right off the slide, so he could climb up it. I don’t know where he got it — certainly not from me.

So I shouldn’t worry. And I try not to. If only parenting weren’t so completely judgementified these days, it would be so much easier.

Normal, normal, normal — isn’t it just a town in Illinois? Of course it is.

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and i got it all out of a pint of milk

maura @ 7:00 pm

I’m lame, I fully admit it. Here it is the weekend, when I should be taking the time to write a real post on one of my ideas, but I’m just not feeling up to it. So I’m going to paste in some twitters again, for the last week or so. And try to get up the gumption to write something real tomorrow.

(full feed here)

“who would win, triceratops vs dragon? who would win, dragon vs lobster?” about 8 hours ago from mobile web

why does gus only ever want to play w/his toys when we’re trying to get out the door? about 8 hours ago from mobile web

looking forward to this afternoon’s playdate: video games for gus, library chatting for me about 11 hours ago from mobile web

is it ever *not* going to be 35 degrees + windy? about 21 hours ago from web

treating myself to no work tonight, tv & beer instead! about 23 hours ago from mobile web

taught my last English 1 session of the semester this morning, feeling strangely melancholy 12:15 PM yesterday from mobile web

I’m tired of winter in fall 7:35 AM yesterday from mobile web

taking a break from crunching numbers for the article to buy some architecture books. 12:17 PM Nov 20th from web

amazed at continuing eXtreme kitten boldness: he jumped up on the table as I was sitting here eating breakfast! 7:28 AM Nov 20th from mobile web

why am I still awake? why is Jonathan still watching puppies? 11:23 PM Nov 19th from mobile web

can’t believe that jonathan only just now heard of the puppy cam. n00b. 9:43 PM Nov 19th from web

aaaaaand it’s back into manhattan with me. hooray for the Q train! 7:34 AM Nov 19th from mobile web

recovering from today’s presentation, thinking about tomorrow’s 6:15 PM Nov 18th from mobile web

p.s. I will not miss the photocopier over winter break 9:27 AM Nov 18th from mobile web

I can’t possibly need more than 25 handouts, right? 9:26 AM Nov 18th from mobile web

jonathan was taunting me with cookies. 9:43 PM Nov 17th from web

early bathtime in prep for movie night (kung fu panda) 4:43 PM Nov 16th from mobile web

all of us are sitting at the table with our portable electronic devices. ah, sunday morning. 8:32 AM Nov 16th from mobile web

Home now, drinking tea & gearing up to scrape weird residue off the floor, woo hoo 12:38 PM Nov 15th from mobile web

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til the end of time

maura @ 9:40 pm

It’s been a long week. A good week, too, though I’m surprisingly melancholy @ teaching my last english comp library session of the semester today. Still, I went to Manhattan three (3!) times, had a parent teacher conference, helped trim the cats’ nails, and felt better enough to walk to work today. Which sounds like a full week to me.

There’s new public art in the plaza near my work!

A melting waffle! I kind of feel like that right now. Plus there’s last night’s TV to watch, and beer to drink.

Maura out.

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