wheezing and sneezing and

maura @ 9:45 pm

And speaking of Cocteau Twins lyrics, here are the last 3 captchas I had to enter when I posted a blag tonight for the coop environmental committee:

pingba
wasill
ancyc

I haven’t twittered or facebooked at all today, how can that be?! I do find that excessive twittering + facebooking suck blag energy. What can you do, there’s only so much time in the day. (Okay, I just twittered. I cannot say “tweet,” it is just too precious.)

Hey, my leg is feeling better! So much so that I walked 1/3 of the way to work today. For the remainder of the week I have 3 days in which I’ve got meetings/presentations in Manhattan, so here’s hoping I really am on the mend.

Thus ends tonight’s random entry. I really do mean to write about compost someday, but not tonight.

like he said he would

maura @ 5:36 pm

Today I was looking through photos on my phone and found this one from last weekend. There’s some neato public art in Madison Square Park: treehouses! Might they be a good place to live? Well, it’d be cold, but you could be first in line for Shake Shack every day!

in our angelhood

maura @ 9:34 pm

Today’s unanswered questions:

– What should I get everyone for Christmas?

– Why do the cats keep scratching the rugs (and the corollary, why isn’t the new anti-cat-scratching spray working?)

– How do you spell “corollary,” anyway?

– If I get a USB turntable, can I plug it right into our prehistoric amp + speakers? And if we get rid of said ancient (17-yr-old!) hi-fi stereo amplifier, how will I listen to my records on my new turntable?

– Assuming acquisition of said turntable, will I ever find time to rip my records to digital files?

– And speaking of time, how can I get back on my daily reading track?

– Will I have time to sew myself a new iphone cozy, purse and in-bag purse-like organizer over the holidays?

– If I go to sleep now, will I kick the exhaustion that’s dogged me for the past few days?

– Are accurate lyrics for older Cocteau Twins songs available anywhere online? Or was Liz Fraser just making it all up as she went along?

– Will I ever get over my annoyance at that nightclub in Philly that wouldn’t let my underage self (accompanied by my dad) in to see The Chameleons play on their last ever U.S. tour?

– What should I get my brother for his birthday?

– Did we pay less than our fair share at Japanese dinner tonight?

keep on pushing

maura @ 5:36 pm

It’s Friday night, and I’m still at work, because I have to teach a class @ 6. Last night I was here teaching a class until 8:30, and I am tired. And also feeling a bit blag spent, since I maxed out my fashion-blagging last night.

So! I will leave you with the fashiony things that I want for xmas:

A new robe from LL Bean, because my old robe is older than Gus. And this robe is a) green and b) covered in lobsters! What could be more fun?

Some slightly fancy shoes to wear to work in the winter with skirts. I tried to get a pair from ebay for $30 earlier this week but was denied, so I might have to wait for santa to score me some new ones.

Tights in many colors! You can never have too many tights, esp. if you’re wearing skirts to work in the winter (see above).

Big ol’ rain boots, again from Bean, because when my tendonitis is finally healed I want to get back to walking to work, and if it’s rainy I’ll need boots!

That’s all for tonight! Tune in tomorrow, when I complain about composting (seriously!).

fashion crisis hits new york, part deux

maura @ 7:43 pm

(because French is the fancy language of fashion!)

To continue: last night I was saying that lately I seem to be completely unable to dress myself. Not in the mechanical sense, though I would love a machine that comes out of the floor to dress me in the morning (like Robert Downey Jr. had in Iron Man). No, in the looking-put-together way.

(I should mention that the title is a song by Irish pop band the Frank and Walters, and that it pops right into my head on mornings when I’m standing in front of the open closet and having a particularly rough time of it.)

Problem #1 is, as ever, my unreasonably high expectations. I want to wear clothes for work that fit me well and that are fashionable in a classic yet interesting way. I like colors (and plaid and stripes!), but I like black/gray/brown, too. I guess the look I’m going for is quirky yet professional. And a bit dressy, because that’s the way we roll @ MPOW. I also want to be able to get most of my clothes secondhand, for ethical + thrifty reasons.

So. Usually I shop at my local Goodwill, which has a surprisingly great selection of clothes. I always say that it’s like the rich people from the adjacent neighborhood just dump all of their slightly used stuff at this store, because I often score clothes from Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, etc. I’ve been able to find a lot of great pieces at the Goodwill, and supplement them with a few things from real stores (mostly H&M and Old Navy). And if for some reason the item of clothing just doesn’t work out, it’s only $5 max down the drain.

The problem comes down to matching. Lots of my clothes match easily, but I can’t seem to find appropriate things to wear with many others. Which is frustrating, because I don’t have time to shop often, so the unmatchable items end up sitting in my closet for ages, despite the fact that I love them. While shopping I’ve tried to think about what I already own that matches things I’m considering buying, but that hasn’t worked. And I’ve seriously considered taking pictures of every piece of clothing to bring with me on my phone to the store. Which is just crushingly nerdy, and probably wouldn’t work anyway. Sigh.

The solution is clearly uniforms. Librarians for uniforms — who’s with me?

fashion crisis hits new york

maura @ 10:53 pm

For our anniversary Jonathan surprised me with the new backpack I’d been coveting. And, while it looked PERfect in the catalog, IRL it was not exactly right. There are too many straps (sternum *and* waist) and there’s a built-in laptop liner + very seriously padded back + straps that add lots of weight to the pack even before it’s full. It made me very sad, because I love love love the jaunty, comma-shaped outer pocket, but we had to return it.

Rather than send it through the mail, we all took a field trip to Soho last weekend to return it in person. Which also provided us with an excuse to go to Shake Shack. Even though the two locations are nearly 30 blocks apart. The burgers were calling to us!

Is there an economic downturn? Because if so, someone forgot to tell Soho. The streets were PACKED, and people were buying buying buying. While I lean mostly anticonsumerist these days, it’s hard to resist the pull of new + pretty things when you are surrounded by them. Venders all over Prince St. were selling cool blue graffiti- and street-art-inspired paintings (that I’ve been thinking about all week) and neato tshirts silkscreened with the silhouette of a leafless tree. Our post office from when we first moved here has been taken over by an Apple Store! And did you know that there’s a Camper store here, too? Swoon.

Okay, this was really meant to be a post about how I am a complete idiot at dressing myself for work lately (the above was just the intro — yes, I am verbose!). But then my dad called and now it’s late and I want to watch last night’s House. So let’s pick this up again tomorrow!

so sad to see you fade away

maura @ 10:02 pm

Gus wins the admiration of 3rd graders + kindergarteners alike w/his mad gameboy skillz (and his awesome brown hat):

and why 2 plus 2 makes 4

maura @ 10:13 pm

Status Update, From What Has Become The Blag of Whining:

1. We’ve all adjusted fine to falling back (11/2’s post). I like that it’s light when we get up, though I don’t like leaving work in the dark.

2. The cats still like their low-rent kitty condo (11/3’s post). Jonathan made a tunnel in out of an old cereal box and now it’s fresh and new!

3. I emailed some friends about Gus’s hope for Obama’s presidency (11/4’s post), only to discover that their kids think that Obama will abolish homework. Foolish children.

4. The Pratt mug is nice + deep + good for tea (11/5’s post).

5. My leg is a lot better (11/6’s post), but still not 100%. But it’s better enough that tomorrow I may get off the subway 1 stop early and take the stairs at work. Living on the edge!

6. Tonight we are trying a New Sleep Plan, in which we leave the door to Gus’s room open in a (vain?) attempt to stave off whatever sleep issues may arise (11/9’s post). We will see if it works.

like he said he would

maura @ 11:18 pm

I love my child, but his atrocious sleep habits are wearing me down lately. He’s never been a good sleeper: as a new-newborn he wouldn’t sleep unless we were holding him, he never would sleep in the crib, and in general he just does not like to sleep alone. Which I can honestly understand — I don’t like it either.

So of course we still snuggle w/him every night while he goes to sleep, and wakes up every night to come in to our bed. Which, for the past year or so, has been fine: he’s been going to sleep reasonably quickly and coming in around 2am or even later.

But since the end of the summer it’s been shot all to hell. He’s taking forever to go to sleep and wants us to stay until he’s all the way out. And he’s waking up as early as 11pm, by which point of course we’re not even asleep yet. Then he gets pissy that we want him to go back to bed.

He also won’t go to sleep with a babysitter, which is a drag because it means whenever we go out he is up til we get home, then wakes up at the usual crack of dawn the next morning and is crabby all day.

Whine whine whine, woe is me. But I have some work to do tonight and we are 1/2way through a movie from last night that I would really like to finish, but thanks to the incredible sleepless child we’ll have to put it off for tomorrow. Blargh.

everybody scream, everybody scream

maura @ 5:57 pm

Wow, I’m doing great with quitting NaBloPoMo, no? (hee) But it’s the weekend now, and time is in greater supply, and of course I don’t really want to quit, so here I am. But I will have to figure out a strategy for the weekdays, when seemingly my every waking moment is scheduled.

So, day 3 of this medication and my leg still hurts. Jonathan is sick of listening to me whine + moan about it, so it’s onto you, internets!

I guess I’m not taking it as easy as I could be, but, frankly, I suck at inactivity. I had to go to a conference yesterday, but I walked slowly, took as many elevators as possible and spent most of the time sitting down. But I did have a class last night so I stood for that. This morning I woke up and was unable to resist cleaning the bathroom (the one shared by Gus + cats), but I did sit on the sofa and watch The Witches* w/Gus. Then I had to sweep the floors and wash the dishes. But now I’m typing this from the laptop (on the sofa, again).

* Which was MUCH scarier at the beginning than I remembered it! Hope we are not headed for nightmares tonight.

So I’m crabby + grumpy + squirrelly for lack of activity (esp. the walk to work). God forbid I ever get some sort of illness requiring bedrest, because I will go absolutely batshit crazy.