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19May
2005

if you want your record back

maura @ 8:42 pm

So Jonathan is freelancing for an old boss of his right now, and she’s one of those enviable (to me at least) people who only needs to sleep about 5 hrs a night. Five hours! I’m a true 8 hr kinda gal, and though I can survive on 7 I usually will be tired + cranky by nighttime (like now!) and every few weeks will have to crash with Gus at 9pm and sleep straight through til morning. But if I could only sleep 5 hrs, or even 6, how cool would that be? Very cool, is how.

I could use the found time to do things I don’t have time to do now, not just boring cleaning or chores, but stuff I’d love to do more of like writing, making stuff, etc. I mean, it’s been a long time since I was spraypaint-stenciling tshirts with a weird logo I created called anal babies (high school), or making mixtapes for anyone and everyone (college + beyond), but lately I’ve been having a creative itch and it would be nice to get scratching. Writing in my journal just isn’t doing it (or here, apparently, since I can’t ever seem to get around to it).

And speaking of being late to the party, on heavy rotation at maurawebFM these days are: Pipas, Aislers Set, Sleater-Kinney (yeah, better late than never), and the wonderful Wednesdays at WFMU. AND my birthday’s coming up, which means that the new Ivy record will soon be mine, bwahahahaha. Almost makes up for the fact that, once again I realized too late that a band I like is playing in town (in this case, Pipas + the Lucksmiths at the beginning of the month). Sigh. Live music is just too hard when you need 8 hrs of sleep a night (and don’t have a babysitter).

Here’s a complete non-sequitur: I have only just recently realized that I am actually pretty obsessive-compulsive. Not medicatably (is that a word?) OCD, but definitely it’s a syndrome or something. I’ll pause now so that the people who know me (and esp., god forbid, any ex-roommates) can laugh long and hard.

Why has it taken me so long to realize this about myself? I don’t know, except that my mom is pretty compulsive too (I mean, it had to come from somewhere, right?) so I maybe always just thought that clean + tidy was the way things were supposed to be? Anyway now that I’ve finally acknowledged it I’ve started to notice my other weird compulsions. How I can’t leave the house without making the bed. Or how agitated I am when the garbage or recycling needs to be taken out. And of course cleaning has always been an enjoyable pastime for me. I could never work (school work) with a dirty house, and it’s such a great way to procrastinate.

Anyway, I guess this is all part of the larger need for control, another facet of the Bossy McBessy that’s me. I’ve been trying to get a handle on the control stuff recently with Gus, who’s in major-rebellion mode lately and has been running away from me down the sidewalk, which is a bit scary to say the least. The theory is that if I try to control less of his life then he’ll balk less at the things that must be controlled. Or something. And surely he’ll grow out of it someday, right? I don’t know, he’s stubborn as a mule (and twice as ugly), just like his mama.

Only 2 more episodes of Lost, what will we do all summer? Cry over the giant disappontment that was Alias this season? Why no! Silly readers, we here in mauraweb will be catching up on Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, and Desperate Housewives, of course. All this TV, we might just have to get cable again.

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11May
2005

the cruelest month

maura @ 8:53 pm

Oh yes, April sure was full, and only sometimes with fun stuff. In brief (and in order):

– We visited my dad in VT
– I got a really heinous head cold
– Me + Jonathan did the dinner/silent auction fundraiser at Gus’ school, which raised a lot of dough (yay!)
– Gus got strep throat and was out of school for almost a week
– I got an AWFUL stomach flu (plus fever!) for 3 days. My mom came up to help and she + Jonathan insisted I go to to the ER, which was actually sort of a nice break from Gus, who’d been a bit feral

And that was that.

Now it’s May and things are better. Finally it’s mostly warm out — Gus and I hit the botanic gardens yesterday after school with our neighbors to play in the pink snow (what he calls the piles of fallen cherry blossoms) and smell the lilacs (purple smell better than white, says he [and I agree]). This weekend our whole building is having a stoop sale which makes me very happy: I get to get rid of our old stuff, make a few bucks, and hang out with the neighbors for a few hours, fun!

I also got four (4!) books out of the library last week, so the great nonfiction drought is over. Powered through the Mamaphonic book* and am really enjoying Unconditional Parenting a lot, much more than I expected, actually. Of course, the problem with any book espousing a parenting philosophy is that what sounds good on paper is often hard to put into practice in the field, when your 3.5 yr old is throwing his shoes down the hall steps rather than bringing them into the house, for example. But I’m game if he is.

*Man I am a SUCKA for the mothering essays. A stone cold sucka. Maybe it’s because they sustained me during that very tough first year with Gus, the no-sleeping-painful-breastfeeding-fussy-baby year. Maybe it’s because I worry that my brain is completely atrophying, and want to reassure myself that other moms feel this way too. Anyway, I at least have stopped buying them — they’re the ultimate literary candy for me and it’s just way more economical to get them from the library.

And anyway, it’s not totally Gus’ fault my brain is mushy. That started before he was born. I’d planned to tell you all about it, but Lost and Alias are almost finished taping and I have a date with 2 weeks worth of unfolded laundry, so I’ll catch you later.

les tags: , ,