it’s getting later and later

maura @ 5:27 pm

I think it’s fair to say that I am a bit obsessed with tiny houses. I’ve been decluttering a lot, downsized from a desktop computer to a laptop, am checking more books out of the library than I buy, etc. So it makes sense that the tiny house would be right up my alley.

My daydream is that when we retire we’ll get a bit of mountainy foresty land near a stream and plop down a tiny house. Something like this one, the Harbinger, looks like a good fit for us. It’s 300 square feet plus a sleeping loft. Yes, we’d have to get rid of a bunch of stuff. But I’m ready to get rid of most of the knick-nacks (and paddywacks). By then I will have digitized all of my LPs and CDs so they can go, too. We probably won’t want to part with all of the books, but I bet if we invest in some custom-built shelves and arrange the books by size we’ll be able to get most of them in there.

What about the kitchen? Will we eat tiny food*? Some of these houses have tiny little kitchens w/hot plates + dorm fridges, but the Harbinger has enough space for a modest but real stove/oven + fridge. Yes, we’ll need to go shopping more often, but we’ll be living just outside of a cute little town and I will ride my bike** to the store every few days. Also, we’ll have a (tiny) garden where we’ll grow (tiny) fruits + veggies.

* On tiny plates! Like in Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker Cure.

** Gus + I got bikes! But that’s a post for another day, Pee-Wee.

You can add another bedroom onto the back, but I think that instead we should get another even tinier house as a guest room, maybe the Epu? Gus should be fine there when he comes to visit. We will probably also need a shed to hold bikes, gardening tools, push mower, cross-country skis, snowshoes + sleds. We’ll have to get a car but it can be small, too.

After I outlined all of this Jonathan said “so really it’s a tiny compound!”

here’s your future: it’s gonna rain

maura @ 9:39 pm

I’ve been mentally blogging all day in discrete paragraphs rather than sustained narrative, so I’m going to kick it list-style here tonight:

1. After multiple recommendations I finally got my hands on some Thermals records. And they are awesome! Good for listening to while cleaning the stacks of papers off your desk, arranging the fall workshop schedule, and doing the dishes. Since it has rained here for a million billion jillion days straight, the line that’s the title of this post seems particularly apt.

2. Seriously, it has rained for a million billion jillion days straight. I mean, I used to dig in Ireland, I know from rain. I finally bought some big tall boots, but this is still getting pretty old. No rain today but the forecast for the weekend looks ominous, bah.

3. Last week we went to the curriculum share at Gus’s school to see all the fantastic work they’ve done all year. I am completely in awe of his teacher: she took those 27 kids on a ton of field trips all over the city (they studied a lot of architecture this year), including walks over the Brooklyn, Manhattan AND Williamsburg bridges (not all in the same day). Among the work Gus showed us was a book he made entitled “All Kinds of Awesome Poems By Gus.” Which makes me giggle every time I think of it.

4. I finally cleared a whole bunch of random old photos off my phone recently. Here are two:

This is from a crazy place with tons of inflatable stuff to climb on called Bounce U that we went to with friends earlier this year. Gus had a blast, predictably.

There’s a fun public art project all along a street near my work for which lots of people knitted cozies for the parking meters! It’s amazing, very Doctor Seussian. I took this photo right after the cozies were installed — they look much more droopy now that they’ve been rained on for a month. You can get a better look in the nice Flickr photostream and there’s also more info in the Times.

that’s when their eyes got big

maura @ 5:28 pm

You may remember that time last year when I saw a manhole cover with the word TELEPORT on it. (Or maybe you didn’t, which is why I linked back to it just there.) And then I couldn’t find it later.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I found it again, except that I’m not exactly sure that this is the same one I saw before. I could swear that I saw the other one a few blocks away, but I haven’t walked that way to work in a while.

It’s funny, it never even occurred to me that this could be Art, but Jonathan suggested it might be so the last time I passed it I looked verrrrry closely. And it looks as solid and authentic as any other manhole cover. Plus, it’s right near a big old Verizon building and there are other manhole covers in the vicinity that feature the same hexagonal patterns (though they all read BELL TEL or have a bell on them).

That’s the boring explanation for its existence, though. I’d prefer it if you could really teleport. And, as Jonathan pointed out, there are little rocketships in between the hexagons. Interesting…

i’ll write you a postcard i’ll send you the news

maura @ 9:38 pm

It’s the last day of January, so it’s time to get those Groundhog’s Day Eve resolutions in. What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of Groundhog’s Day Eve resolutions?!! You must be one of those organized do-gooder types that make New Year’s resolutions, harrumph.

Yeah, so I couldn’t get it together to do the resolutions thing in January. I mean, I made them, but I didn’t really stick to them. So in the spirit of Bill Murray I am giving myself another chance. And I’m posting them here, too, so I will a) remember them, and b) feel some small amount of public shame when I think about slacking on them. Let’s see if it works.

1. Be more realistic.
Kind of an overarching goal. I tend to make a huge list of things that no human could possibly accomplish within the unreasonable timeframe I’ve set, then get mad at myself for not finishing them. Watch me practice this resolution with the very list of resolutions I’m creating!

2. Get control of my infostreams.
I’ve had marginal success with this one, actually. I moved all my feeds into google reader, and I’ve been able to get most of the NY Times scanned each morning (tho sometimes the Science Times has to wait til after work). But there are 126 unread items in my google reader right now so obviously this one still needs work.

3. Start meditating again.
For some reason that I can’t quite fathom I stopped meditating about a year ago. Which was dumb, because it helped me sleep better and was great for dealing with stress, too. So I need to get back to that.

4. Floss in the mornings (as well as at night).
This is a little thing that always feels like a big thing but really is the right thing so I should just do it!

5. Find some sort of volunteery thing to do with Gus.
There was an article in the Times about family volunteering a couple of years ago. It’s been on my mind for a while, and I think this is the year to do it.

6. Carve out more time for reading + writing.
Blag, journal + even maybe some other casual writing (maybe even about libraries). And try to start making a dent in my 100+ book reading list.

Okay, in the spirit of #1 it’s probably time to stop now. We have a movie to finish before I have to meditate!

paper chase is on

maura @ 9:11 pm

Happy New Year, interwebs!

We here at mauraweb! are back from our holiday adventures, which were busy but quite fun. We kicked it Santa-style at home in Brooklyn on Christmas morning, then met up with Grandma and Grandpa and hopped on a plane Xmas evening bound for the UK. We spent the next several days in London riding the tube + double-decker buses, tramping around castles, catching a glimpse of the Rosetta Stone (which is much smaller than I thought it would be), and hanging out at an awesome playground. Gus + his grandparents also went up in the London Eye and to see a play: a modern-yet-Grimm’s Cinderella. Tasty treats were had by all: meat pies, fish + chips and ale at various pubs, noodles from Wagamama, cookies + cakes + sausages + rashers (not all at the same time!) from Tesco.

Gus had a good time on his first foray to a foreign land, though in some respects we wonder how different it seemed to him. After all, we were in a city, going to museums + playgrounds, riding public transportation — lots of things we do here. Of course, here it’s not all Mary Poppins flats + chimneys when we look out the windows, nor are there palaces in the parks. While walking by Kensington Palace we were talking about what happens if a baby or kid is next in line for the throne. And he said: “Wait! I have a question: wouldn’t the children make foolish decisions?” Which still makes me giggle.

But enough about my Xmas vacation, I know you’re all wondering how my interwebs vacation went. We’d thought we’d have wifi in the flat but then we didn’t and for some reason my phone had no service the whole time, so it ended up being more of an enforced than voluntary break. And it was pleasantly refreshing! I did glance at my email once or twice, just to be sure our neighbor wasn’t trying to contact us with catsitting issues, but that was it.

The unplugging was nice, actually. Took me back to those pre-cellphone days of traveling with only the Lonely Planet to guide you. We had the TV for weather + news (mostly the sad Gaza news, made closer by the fact that the Israeli embassy was close to our flat and the site of protesters many days). I didn’t feel particularly deprived, either, though the same may not be said for all members of our party.

I’m letting myself ignore everything that happened on my various infostreams while I was gone, too, which has been quite a relief as I spend these last few vacation days trying to kick the jet lag (and the head cold that came back with a vengeance while we were away) and get ready to head back to work on Monday. This week I’ll be trying to start fresh and come up with a reasonable plan for keeping up that doesn’t take too much time or make me feel bad if I drop behind. I’m thinking that setting aside a certain amount of time (30-60 min/day or so) and using a three-tiered system (must read, good to read, leisure read) may be the way to go. We’ll see how it works.

hey, kid, secret history

maura @ 7:31 pm

Last week I started walking to work again (yay for anti-inflammatories!), which means that I had lots of time to think in the morning. So I thought a lot about my complicated feelings about Christmas. And I believe that I came to some sort of understanding about it all (though I don’t know that I can translate that into any kind of action).

It’s duh to even say this, but Christmas is fun + exciting when you’re a kid. When I was little, our Christmases went something like this: Decorate the tree on Christmas Eve. (Sometimes my maternal grandmother would be there, sometimes she’d be at my aunt’s house.) Presents + breakfast in the morning, not terribly rushed. Around lunchtime (after lunch?) we’d pile in the car and drive an hour or so to my paternal grandparents’ house. I can’t remember if we saw cousins then or not, but my dad’s brothers + parents all lived in the same town. Dinner there, then home.

But that was then; things are more complicated in our modern era. I have 2 siblings (and Gus has 5 cousins), my parents are divorced, Jonathan’s parents are divorced, and everyone lives in a different state. Before Gus was born we did a pretty strict every-other-year thing, but of course with all those constituencies there’s no way to avoid multiple locations + celebrations.

Once Gus came along we started trying to have Christmas morning here in Brooklyn (yo), though we haven’t always. Grandparents usually visit, but we’re not really on any kind of schedule these days. We try to arrange things on Christmas-adjacent weekends with whomever we don’t see on Christmas. And Gus’s birthday is at the beginning of December, so it often seems like a month o’ presents.

Add to that mix my increasing stinky hippieness over the past 5 yrs or so and my general dislike of (most) shopping, and it’s hard not to feel like Charlie Brown complaining about Christmas commercialism. I’ve taken some steps to try and deal with it: spending less $, doing the handmade thing when possible, and wrapping gifts in cloth rather than paper. But I still find myself thinking about big pink aluminum trees when the end of the year is nigh.

Part of it is certainly everything there is to DO. We bake cookies as gifts for extended family members, which takes a ton of (mostly Jonathan’s) time. Then there’s the gifts, the tree, decorating, wrapping, mailing, etc. There are things we could do that would take less time, but they would compromise my stingy + crunchy principles.

So what’s the solution? I don’t rightly know. The multiple extended Christmases are probably the heart of the issue for me, and the anti-consumerist hoo-ha the icing on the cake. I wish there were some way we could spend actual Christmas and the few days around it with some family each year, but maybe not run from place to place over the course of a month. And maybe that might mean not seeing some other family members right around Christmas that year, but maybe we could see them at other times? Maybe if we travelled less, the rest of the craziness wouldn’t seem quite so crazy.

But, but, but…I like seeing family at Christmas, even if it’s not on Christmas day. And I like Gus to see family too, esp. since we don’t see everyone all that often.

Maybe EVERYONE should just come to our house. 1300 square feet is plenty of room, right?

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?

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.

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.