when there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire

maura @ 10:05 pm

What a difference 13 days make! I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that my wounds are nearly completely healed now, with the exception of my knee. Of course I reopened that puppy by banging into the coffee table tonight while I was “playing” Mousetrap* with Gus. Duh for me. On the bright side, the face wounds have healed scab-free and are completely makeupable. If I’m wearing pants, no one even has to know how much of an idiot I am!

* “playing” Mousetrap with Gus involves setting up the whole trap mechanism and having him trap mice, in this case the red + yellow mice, repeatedly. No actual turns are taken, no actual game is played. It’s mind-numbing, but in a fairly inoffensive way.

So I’ve been meaning to expound on Anne’s comment from last week that the found stroller is cursed. You know, I think she may be onto something! Since I found that stroller we have been sick and sick. AND, last week my computer’s hard drive crapped out! Luckily I live in Nerd House, where there are 3 other computers to choose from, though I miss mine, a lampy iMac. Since then I’ve been on a PC where things are uglier. I’m so sorry for your ugliness, dear PC-users.

At first I thought the curse was an unhealthy curse. I found that stroller on the way home from the gym, and all the illness + injury has kept me from going to the gym much. But then the busted computer, I don’t know how that fits in. I mean, it is 3 yrs old, though I must admit I’ve never had a hard drive die on me. Anne, any ideas?

My friend S said, “are you going to get rid of that stroller?” and Jonathan was like, “no, we cannot, I LOVE it.” So there you go.

And in the making lemonade department, we used the computer fixit shop errand as an excuse to have lunch at Shake Shack, where we’ve been wanting to go forever. Gus ate his weight (about 28 lbs.) in cheeseburger, fries and chocolate milkshake, which astonished us. And it was yuuuuuuuuuummy.

And in other weekend news, my mom came up for a sleepover with Gus, and we hightailed it way across the river for a hotel date night. We stayed here, ate here, saw this and drank this (little cans! bendy straws! so festive!) staring out the window of our room. The next morning we slept til almost 8:30am! Such is the childfree life. Of course, we had to run back to Brooklyn quick because we missed that kid so much, but what are you going to do.

jump in, jump out

maura @ 12:41 pm

Ooh, I have a whole hour between now and when I need to pick up Gus from school, yay for free time! (And look, I’m getting a handle on that OCD thing by NOT cleaning the bathroom right now, even though it really needs it. Go me!)

Since our last chat, we’ve all been sick here. AGAIN. Last week Gus had an ear infection (Tu), double pinkeye* (Th) and strep throat (Sa) [AGAIN]. I did feel pretty bad for the poor kid — much of the time he just wanted to sit on my lap and watch videos, which he never does normally so he must’ve been feeling pretty bad. Then Jonathan got sick, some sort of strep-like bacterial throat thing, so now I am the only person in the house NOT on antibiotics (though I have a sore throat, too, but it hasn’t gotten worse than that). And of course now Jonathan has a cold. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: kids are germy.

* and here I would just like to point out that if you can love your kid when they have evil caterpillars of chartreuse (“a color that I have not seen”) goop coming out of the corners of their eyes, you pass the parenting test.

What was a huge drag about the sick thing was that my mom had come up over the weekend to have a sleepover with Gus, and Jonathan + I were going to have a hotel date (the first time we’d have ever been away from Gus overnight). But then he got sick, so those plans were scuttled. Instead we went out to dinner in Manhattan, which was a very decent alternative. We narrowly got a table at Prune, a new (to us, but really 3 yrs old I think?) place in the East Village. And it ROCKED. ComPLETEly lived up to our expectations. We had cocktails (Pimm’s Cup! I am so girly!) and sweetbreads (deep fried!) and suckling pig with garlic mayo and cornmeal poundcake with strawberries and braised lettuce, peas and artichokes in butter sauce. Yum yum yummy yum. And my new favorite summer wine ever, Ca’ del Solo’s Big House Pink. I’m going to make my neighbors go in on a case of it with us so we can make it our sandbox + baby pool wine this year.

Non sequitur of the post: someone at work got the new Pipas CD (yay iTunes shared library!). Thank you, baba alligator, whoever you are!

Man, am I actually out of things to say? How can that be? What can I talk about? How I read Unconditional Parenting again and it really has made a huge impact, yet even so Gus stuck an index card + a toy coin into the VCR last night, [temporarily, thankfully] busting it? I really want to get the apt. painted but I am too stingy to pay someone and Jonathan is too realistic about our moods to not pay someone? How I am already so very looking forward to our 4th of July visit to J’s parents in Indiana (Gus usually wants nothing to do with us there so we have lots of free time: last year I RAN OUT of books to read!)? How Jonathan’s been pretty busy with work lately so hasn’t had time to work on a new design for this, and I really should make one my damn self? How long my to do list is? Uh oh, I’m starting to freak the OCD again, I should go and load the dishwasher. Later.

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.

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.

finally, the lamb

maura @ 8:26 pm

After torrential rain for more than 24 hrs, spring finally seems to be coming to Brooklyn. Tomorrow looks gorgeous, which makes me happy that I’m working only 1/2 day so Gus and I can have a playdate with a school chum in the afternoon.

Been feeling rather blue lately, not finding/making the time for this thang (I mean, seriously, I haven’t even written in my journal in over a week, much less this blogging-come-lately). There’s a bunch of stuff right now that I want to change but can’t, for a variety of reasons, change right now, and it’s making me grumpy. Hopefully changes will come soon, and I’ll pull out of this funk.

How’s that for vague?

I keep meaning to write a big post about music, since I’ve recently come up to speed on the music of the new millennium, after a 4-ish yr absence, but I don’t have the gumption for it right now. Maybe this weekend when we are visiting my dad, and the vast quantities of grandparental attention (combined with the sort of lack of things to do where he lives) give me Free Time. Yes, maybe.