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.

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!

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 judgment 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?

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.

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.

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

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.

i’ve got your p.o. box number

maura @ 7:38 pm

“Yes, yes I would, yeah baby, yeah!”

That’s what Gus just said when Jonathan asked him if he’d get cherry pie again someday. He had some over the weekend at his school’s fundraiser. It was a good time, as ever, if a bit chilly this year. What with the wind most of the littler kids ended up in the gym, running around like crazed monkeys hitting each other with inflatable spongebob and spiderman hammers that their pushover parents bought for $3 each (us included). Just remember, kids, it’s only fun until someone loses an eye! Or gets hit in the face with an inflatable hammer, as it turns out.

When we got there the high school band was playing, by which I mean 3 kids w/guitars + drums (rather than the kind with uniforms + woodwinds). You know you’re an old lady when all you can think is OMG they are so cute with their pop-punk + guitar solos + crazy tight purple pants. Gus was positively enthralled with the drummer: “look, he has cymbals and a drum with a pedal on the floor!” Not exactly the best choice for apartment living, but maybe we’ll have to figure something out. When they came offstage I heard one of them telling a parent to check their myspace. Adorable!

the forest was emerald

maura @ 10:11 pm

Earlier this week at work I noticed a tiny plastic turntable sitting on the table in the tech services area (where my cube is). I asked a coworker about it and she replied that she found it in one of the boxes, and that she didn’t know where it had come from.

I couldn’t resist, so now it’s stuck on the wall over my desk, right next to some of Gus’s artwork and a Made With Love By Hannah postcard.

I’m thinking that this is the universe’s way of telling me that yes! I should put a USB turntable on my xmas list. So I will! And who cares if I never have time to digitize all of my records, anyway. As long as I can get Thomas Dolby’s 2nd album (“The Flat Earth”) in there, that’s good for a start.

cause nobody can do it like mix master can

maura @ 8:02 pm

Today I went to Manhattan to do a presentation (which went just fine, despite my nerves, phew). I wore my new (to me!) pea soup-colored wool skirt, which is now one of my favorite items of clothing. Winter has suddenly descended upon us here, though, which led this morning’s revelation. To plagiarize my facebook status update from earlier today: I finally understand the purpose of legwarmers! I think the next time I’m at the goodwill I’ll hunt for an old sweater so that I can cut the arms off to refashion into my very own pair. Get Jennifer Beals on the horn, I’m a maniac!

(I know that many ensure calf warmth in the winter by wearing boots. And those boots look lovely on those ladies! But I’m not really a boots kind of gal, short + stumpy as I am.)

To get to my destination I had to stroll down 34th St., past many of the fine clothing -n- shoe establishments of NYC (or any old mall): your Gap, your H&M, your Anne Taylor Loft, your Banana Republic. And as I’m walking by these stores, calves shivering, I can’t help but notice that they’ve all got the fancy duds showcased in their display windows. That’s logical, with the holidays approaching at breakneck* speed and all.

* First I wrote “whipneck,” apparently wanting to conflate the cause + the effect.

But as I’m looking in the windows it starts to dawn on me that all of the male mannequins are appropriately attired for the season in fancy (long-sleeved) shirts, toasty (suit) jackets and warm (wool) pants. And what are the lady mannequins wearing? Sleeveless silk dresses, sequined gowns w/spaghetti straps, etc. Stupid fashion! No wonder it’s so hard for women to simultaneously look a bit fancy AND not freeze to death in the winter. Bah.