you look so good in the shoes of an outcast

maura @ 8:20 pm

Over the past few days I’ve been having a hard time reining in my annoyance over Gus’s admittedly completely typical 6 yr old behavior. Things like being so severely poky in the mornings that he will only make it the bus if his trusty valet gets him dressed + shod. Or being completely unable to sit still/facing forward/on his butt at the dinner table for even a minute. Or the whining over having to eat healthy food in order to have some dessert. Oh, I am a cruel parent, so cruel!

But today I suddenly Got Over It. And things were better. There was still lots of wiggling at the dinner table, but Gus accidentally started wiping his mouth with his sock which provided a good opportunity for giggles. (I’m still not sure how it happened — he really didn’t even know he was doing it!)

After dinner he taught me how to play Super Mario Galaxy: “Mommy, why haven’t you played this game? Daddy and I are experts. I’ll teach you.” Not that I told him this, but I haven’t played it because he is hogging it! I guess it is his game.

long nights with the headphones on

maura @ 8:57 pm

So, writing. Haven’t done much of it lately, which makes me feel grumpy. And out of practice. Resolved: write more.

Those krazy kats over at NaBloPoMo have decided to kick it up to every day, every month. I can’t spare the time for that, but I will use this month’s theme (Lists) as tonight’s posting framework.

5 Super Things About the Location of My New Job:

1. Close enough to walk to work! (And far enough that it’s actually decent exercise to walk fast to work in the morning.) I feel a little nerdy doing the Mr. Rogers changing shoes thing at work, but what can you do?

2. Farmer’s market in the plaza nearby on Tuesdays! (And apparently on Thursdays, too, from April-December). This was esp. useful early last week when we didn’t have enough food for lunch — I scored some Empire and Jonagold apples and averted starvation (or hitting the vending machines).

3. OMG the BEST post office ever!!! Longtime (har) readers will recall that I have post office issues. This post office has TWO automated machines (in a space open 24/7!) and stamp machines and windows and lots of space and forms and envelopes and a scale — incredible! It’s the main post office, of course, so it would have all of that stuff. It’s the post office promised land!

4. Pretty close to the Goodwill, too (and you know how I love the Goodwill). And there’s other decent shopping nearby, very handy for errands.

5. Convenient to eight (8!) subway lines, which makes for easy trips home, to Gus’s school, or into/back from Manhattan (east AND west sides!). Not that I’ve taken the train to Gus’s school yet, but it’s only 2 stops away, what could be easier?

when you walk out, look up in the sky

maura @ 8:18 pm

Why I am writing this?! I have much too much to do. I bought 2 pairs of pants over the weekend that (of course, because I’m a shorty) require hemming. And there’s not quite enough food in the house for my lunch tomorrow. We’re a little understocked + underslept here at mauraweb! since we went to my mom’s over the weekend AND Gus is sick (again) and waking us up with his hacking coughs + persistent fevers.

It’s probably just as well that I don’t have time to write much because all I really want to talk about these days is my new job. (Which I really, really like, by the way, have I told you that yet? No? Then pull up a chair!) Jonathan has been listening politely, but I can tell that he is is very bored of me prattling on + on about libraries and information literacy strategies and all of the minute details of my days. Though I did bring home cookies from the lecture I went to last Friday, and who doesn’t like cookies?

impossible architectures

maura @ 9:50 pm

I’m having some organizational issues lately. Not that I’m feeling disorganized, more that I’m no longer quite sure what’s the best format for my stuff. Help me internets!

(n.b. this post will be long-winded and boring. you’ve been warned!)

Okay, so there’s work stuff, which I’m entering into the work email calendar thing. Then there’s home/Gus stuff, which I write on a calendar hanging on the wall at home. But it would be nice to have a computerized linked-up calendar with Jonathan for home/Gus stuff, now that we are both working. Everything in the same place, living the dream!

I was using my 8 yr old Visor to keep track of stuff (retro!). It worked well when I was in library school — I esp. like the ability to make lists and memos. Who doesn’t love lists?! And I could occasionally even jot down a quick blag on the subway.

But the PDA thing is just not fitting in with my slick new work lifestyle. I don’t just sit at my desk all day, I’ve got places to go! I’m already usually carrying a phone, keys, ID, notebook, and pen, and not everything has pockets.

Mostly I am trying NOT to get an iphone. For all the usual crunchy, stingy thrifty, spazzy, whiny reasons you can probably imagine:

Too expensive! What if I lose it? Or drop it and it breaks? Okay, actually, I have never broken a cellphone and have only lost one. And I learned my lesson there, boy howdy. Sandwiches can be dangerous!

Also, you have to get a more expensive plan when you have an iphone, because if you have the ability to surf + email from anywhere of course you will! And do I really need to be surfing + emailing from everywhere + anywhere? Does anyone?

So I went to this old school office supplies place near my new job and got a paper date book. Not sure if it’s really going to work out either, but at least if I drop it I won’t be out $400.

on first and second avenues

maura @ 8:21 pm

The problem with being sick for most of your week off is that you then try to cram everything you planned to do in that week into the two remaining days after you feel better. And I did get a huge amount of stuff done this weekend, probably due to my spazzy energy from my body’s relief at finally not feeling yucky anymore.

One of the things I didn’t do last week when I was sick is make applesauce, so I did it today. Yes! Cooking! Me! I mean, applesauce is no bacon, white bean and kale soup, nor is it homemade chocolate pudding (the things that were cooked in our house today not by me). But it’s not nothing either!

Here’s how to make it:

1. Take a bunch of apples out of the fridge. However many you have is fine, but make sure to ask the people you live with if they want any apples to remain unsauced for eating.

2. Wash ’em and quarter ’em and core ’em. Don’t take off the skin, that’s the secret ingredient!

3. Put about 2mm* of water in a big pot, then dump the apples in. Turn the heat up to simmer and cover the pot.

* Don’t use too much water, because adding it at the end will make the sauce too watery, but the UberCook will say, with horror, “you can’t waste all of that precious apple vitamin juicy water!!!”

3.5. While you’re waiting, unload the dishwasher!

4. Stir the apples every so often and check for doneness. If you’re using a few different types of apples they may be ready at different times.** The apples are ready when they’re soft and just starting to peel away from the skin.

** Honeycrisp take a LONG time; Pink Lady, not so much

5. Take your grandmother’s old Foley Food Mill out of the cabinet, and put it onto a big bowl. Dump the apples in as they’re ready, 4-6 pieces at a time, and turn that mill, baby! Pick out the pieces of skin as needed (i.e. when they start to gum up the works).

6. When all of the apples are milled (whew, good exercise!), dump in the appley water from the pot and stir it all up. Shake a bunch of cinnamon in there (to taste). Marvel at the slightly pinkish color of the finished product — that’s why we leave on the skins!

Everyone in your house will want to try some right away while it’s still warm. Even the 6 yr old, who has been growing ever more picky recently about what fruits he will deign to eat, loves it so much he will consume three (3!) bowls in one day! Now that’s time well-spent, don’t you think?

never gonna give you up

maura @ 8:41 pm

You’re probably wondering how my week off turned out. Well, I didn’t do everything I’d set out to do. But I did get a fair amount done, especially when you factor in the stomach flu that my germy germy kid unleashed on the household. HE was sick for a mere 24 hrs, but his lucky parents had it off and on for nearly a week. Kind of a drag, but MUCH better to be sick this week than next!

Today was the first day everyone really felt healthy in this house, so it was back to work for the adults. And Jonathan was back to assaulting my ears with whatever the interwebs told him to watch on YouTube. Damn you, Rick Astley, with your 80s catchiness! I will never get this song out of my head.

they took a picture, and from this cold lightning

maura @ 7:45 pm

Are you tired of thinking about Spitzer? Me too! Let’s think about music instead.

Last week at work I was talking with a friend about wearing blue mascara in the 80s and then listened to Aladdin Sane on the (delayed) subway home which got me thinking about desert island discs. Remember that? When 80s music magazines used to ask famous people to name the 10 records they’d want if they were stranded on a desert island? I thought you did.

(in alphabetical order, all librarian-like)

1. Bjork: Vespertine

2. David Bowie: I’d have to flip a coin to decide between Aladdin Sane and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

3. Cocteau Twins: Treasure

4. Even in Blackouts: Myths and Imaginary Magicians

5. Everything But the Girl: Amplified Heart

5.5. Lilys: A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns (This is only an EP, so I should get a bonus EP because they are short.)

6. New Order: Low Life

6.5 Pipas: Bitter Club (Another EP)

7. Pixies: Do Surfer Rosa and Come on Pilgrim count as one record or two? They are on the same CD. If the answer is two, then I pick Doolittle.

8. The Shins: Ditto coin flip between Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away

9. Shuggie Otis: Inspiration Information

10. Throwing Muses: Ditto coin flip between Throwing Muses and House Tornado. Except if it’s the British CD of House Tornado which also has The Fat Skier so I’d pick that.

That was much harder than I thought it would be.

with a piece of paper and a calculator

maura @ 8:00 pm

I have a *whole* *entire* *week* *off* between jobs. Here’s a partial list of what I’ll be doing, in no particular order:

– clothes shopping (bah)
– having coffee with a friend!
– ice skating with 90 1^st graders (and bringing hot chocolate)
– filling out new job forms
– organizing my email
– reading the three (3) library books on my shelf
– (maybe) going to a PTA meeting
– having drinks with friends!
– working on an article
– attending a parent-teacher conference
– (maybe) cleaning the house
– attending a new job benefits orientation (yay for benefits!)
– having lunch with friends (3 separate times!)
– rolling up something bigger than a *#&$% bear cub for Ursa Minor in Katamari Damacy

insert title here

maura @ 9:44 pm

Ever since I started at my internship (and continuing on through my adjuncting) I’ve been watching the progress of a giant Target under construction right next to campus. Every morning I’d walk up the steps from the subway and wonder when it would be finished. Would I still be around or would I have a full-time job by then?

Technically, I suppose I won: 2 weeks ago I accepted a job offer! In just over a week I’ll be the Information Literacy Librarian at NYC College of Technology.

But I haven’t started my new job yet. Target opened its doors on Wednesday, which is the same day my appointment letter arrived. So I’m calling it a tie.

she lives in a golden square

maura @ 9:45 pm

It has recently been brought to my attention that this blag is a) long-winded and b) boring. Sorry about that! Limbo does that to a person.

So here’s a short funny post (yeah, right).

Q: Who is the winner, me or Target?
A: Target, but I’m close behind. Or, actually, I think it’s a tie.

I’ll explain tomorrow. With another short + funny post!