Oct 13, 2007 | It's a Dog's Life
This weather is glorious! I had a chance to get out in it yesterday and found myself wandering into LaDeDog… oh. my. Heaven.
Yes, yes, I have serious problems. For starters, I adore a dog who barely tolerates me. But I can’t help it… she’s my supermodel dog. She’s BE-YOO-T-FULL! And she knows it.
Anyone living in Astoria knows that Couture can be hard to come by—so, hard, it requires a trip into the big city. But if you’re a pooch, you’re in luck! LaDeDog can set you up in style without sending your owner’s pocket-book into shock. That’s what the vet bill is for after all!!
Do I look like the kind of girl who would dress up my badger-hunting terrier in darling pea-coats?
(I swear, her tail wags every time she sees me coming with the coat. Yes, it’s bribery, but I think we’ve established that I have issues.)
Oct 12, 2007 | In Photos, This Life
Yes, those would be blue skies.
Oct 11, 2007 | This Life
I will admit, I find myself in a state of gray lately. Funky, off center, and in need of more sleep than I can get. It’s probably just the weather (and rebounding from this virus that is still kicking me sideways!) but it’s getting to me. It seems that every corner I turn in this house, I find yet another project half finished or half cleaned or half undone. I’m left feeling a little undone myself.
Feeling a bit like this wrecked witch.
Evidently, our small town has its seasonal act together. A spattering of these wind blown lovelies have appeared in the last week and every where I go there are Halloween displays. In fact, if you are local and are looking for a great witch costume, do I have a tip for you. The Antique Mall on Marine features a vendor who puts together whole witch ensembles for a bargain. For $18-$25 you can go as a glorious spell-caster: complete with groovy dress, jewelry, and hat! All vintage and all perfectly bewitching. Hurry!! (her stall is on the basement level… ask at the front desk, they’ll direct you.)
Considering the holiday is creeping up with speed, my little family is showing no signs of taking that seriously. Now, I love Halloween! The pumpkins, the candy, the decorations, Boo! It’s true, I tend to eschew advanced planning, but this is not the case with Halloween. You would think being surround by “Js” that my little family would be well on our way to glorious Halloween. Not so! I’ve yet to manage a serious conversation with the men in my family about it. They are scattered-brained on the subject matter. We should be Pirates. We should do Jedi. No, no, Harry Potter. We should plan an elaborate themed extravaganza and hire musicians. Yet, when pressed on any of this, both of them look at me like I’m speaking gibberish. They become downright Zombiefied; regrettably, that’s not helping with the all important planning part of this Halloween.
If these sad little pumpkins, trapped in their grocery netting are any indication, it could be weeks before we get our acts together. Which leads me to believe that we will do what we always do. Let the kid reuse his costume for another year (4th year running!!!!) and carve pumpkins late on the 30th. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to bewitch this family into action. Could someone lend me a wand?
Oct 8, 2007 | Boy Wonder
You can see from the date, IZ was served this morning. He was none too pleased. As I wasn’t the recipient of this legal notice, I laughed a lot longer and harder over it at coffee. I suppose that’s not supportive of my parenting partner; however, IZ isn’t the first person in this family to find themselves in need of a lawyer. Boy Wonder was 4 when he first demanded something in writing.
“But, you can’t read!” I responded in dismay.
“Still, I’d like that in writing.”
“I suppose you’ll want my signature in blood next!” Needless to say, I didn’t do it. I’m not that cowed by this child, much.
The back-story to this particular document is that our child has a bad habit of running sick without telling us. Running: to the point of playing out in the chill with a cold when he is prone to infection instead of staying down and resting just days before we leave for vacation. Running: to the point of $400 emergency room visit just days before we leave for vacation—all because he neglected to tell anyone that he didn’t feel so well a few days previously. If you didn’t feel so badly for him, you might find it annoying. Or maybe I’m just a bad parent.
When he was small, he was enough of a hugger that getting a physical beat on him was easy. Occasionally, he’d run by you on the way outside and stop for a hug… when you got scorched from a little lovin’ you knew he wasn’t feeling so well. If that failed, he would eventually melt down in terror and grief and yeah, spike a fever the next day.
But at nearly 11, there is no stopping him when he is sick. And he’s learned not to say a word until he can no longer exist in his own denial. The last bout of infection, just two days before we left for vacation (why is it always just days before we leave for vacation???), we heard him sobbing uncontrollably downstairs in his chill zone. Here’s the thing, our child does not cry unless he’s miserable. The stoicism that allows him to run himself into the ground extends to his emotions.
Of course, one swipe of the thermometer told me what I already knew. He was fighting an infection and he needed meds ASAP. So, off to the emergency room we ran. I used the short car trip to inform this child, yet again, about the perils of ignoring self care. Which is why, 4 days later while on vacation, when he ended up with yet ANOTHER infection due to a lack of “self” care… I hit the roof. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Why didn’t you tell someone ages ago that you were itchy?? For the love of all things holy, why didn’t you tell me this before we left for vacation????” Lecture I did.
Now, my child has figured out that when his mother snaps, which is not all that often, the best position is one of silence and agreement. If at all possible, sitting back and looking interested, nodding one’s head vigorously enough to cause a concussion is preferable. And so he does. He figures appease me, then trot off to do whatever he was going to do in the first place. I swear the child actually dozes off mid rant, I just can’t prove it. Teenagedom can’t be far away!
Evidently, he has decided that a few CYA measures are in order. I suspect the thought occurred to him right before he passed out during my last rant.
For the record, because obviously he gets his lawyering skills from me, this is not the first draft of his notice. No, that draft was missing a date and riddled with spelling mistakes which I promptly circled. As everything is a learning opportunity in these parts, I set him to looking up the proper spelling in his dictionary. He wrote out his spelling words several times each and then rewrote the notice with proper spelling and punctuation. If you’re going to produce legal documents, you should probably make sure they’re legible and dated.
Heaven help us if he discovers carbon paper.
Oct 7, 2007 | Sunday Sermon
I do believe that an intimacy with the world of crickets and their kind can be salutary – not for what they are likely to teach us about ourselves but because they remind us, if we will let them, that there are other voices, other rhythms, other strivings and fulfillments than our own. – Howard E. Evan
Oct 6, 2007 | Thrifty Goodness
But I’m attempting not to be gloomy! It’s a very rainy Saturday and I’m busy putting together the final touches on a Thrifty Goodness update. There is so much new stuff to see, but I’m really excited about the handcrafted items in the store. Go see!!
When I’m done, which will be as soon as I publish this little blurb, I’m going to put on my brightest coat and brave this gray day to do a little chocolate shopping for Miss Kimberly. I’m fairly convinced that chocolate is the antidote for gloom!
What are you doing on your gray Saturday? (If you write in and tell me it’s sunny where you are, I might cry! So lie to me, dear readers! M’kay?)
Oct 6, 2007 | This Life
 Â
Oct 5, 2007 | You Can't Make This Stuff Up
A year or so ago, an anonymous reader took offense to something I said and then left a scathing review of me by stating that I “couldn’t be more self-absorbed if I was made of half water and half paper towels.” I have seriously considered putting a variation of that criticism on a T-shirt with my blog address beneath it. In part, because I find it absolutely fascinating that anyone would think the venture of blogging wasn’t an exercise in being self absorbed. (this same reader has a habit of trolling the posts involved so much, that I finally made the posts private… he’s not returned, thank goodness!) And also because it was just so witty.
However, the criticism sticks with me, despite my own assertion of “my blog, I’ll write what I want to write.” In truth, I really don’t write what I want to write all that often. Like most of us, I censor with abandon. And I encase all my narcissistic tendencies in fuzzy wrappers that seem warm and inviting… hoping most of you won’t notice that once again I’ve written a pointless post about… me. Yes, I’m foolishly trying to have my cake and eat it too.
So, part of me cringes to post anything as superficial as answers about my beauty regime. Or how it is that I “look so good while feeling so poorly.” I mean, there isn’t a fuzzy wrapper to put on this. This is me writing a post about ME… and not my deep thoughts on war or my pithy perspective on religion… No, this is a post about beauty products and haircuts and everything superficial. My only solution, besides not writing this piece is to put all this superficiality under the cut.
So, if you find yourself disgusted and appalled by my nerve (Uh, my blog!!), then… just look at the pretty picture. M’kay. (although, heaven only knows why you might be reading this blog in the first place, since I’m renown for my uh, absorbency!)
(more…)
Oct 4, 2007 | This Life
We are finally back in the Northwest. And for the first time since moving here, I feel out-of-body in this town. Alien, despite the familiar surroundings. It’s probably just the drastic weather shift.
In many ways, Santa Barbara was a bit of a homecoming for us. IZ is a Santa Barbara boy. He drove us by his old homes and knew every backstreet to the town. No maps needed! For me, the topography of the canyons is familiar… as I grew up with very similar landscapes. The Oak scrub savanna is much like the little alpine lake of my youth… we just didn’t have palm trees everywhere. While I didn’t grow up in Santa Barbara, I spent a great deal of time there during my undergraduate work. It was always a toss up each break—do I head for Montecito or do I head for Laguna? The American Rivera usually won out.
It’s hard not to love a world of permanent sunshine. Yesterday found us stuffing suitcases with souvenirs and rumpled laundry, headed back to the wet. I was ready to leave, but not to come home. As we took our last transport to the airport I found myself wishing for a do-over… for a chance to head back to Santa Barbara. To sink into the big king bed surrounded by the pale blue of our hotel room and just rest. One last stroll on the beach. One last glimpse of terracotta and palm fronds.
Perhaps never to leave.
Oct 1, 2007 | This Life
Boy Wonder: “What continent is this? (riding “It’s a Small World” and entering the all white finale.)
Me: “It’s all the nations and continents represented in white.”
IZ: “It’s heaven.”
*********
It’s nearly 10 pm on the first day of October and I’m sitting by a pool watching my child organize water games. It’s not a bad way to begin the month. Wireless pool side blogging, how much better can it get? I suppose you’re wanting photographic proof, but it’s going to have to wait. It appears that in the dash to leave Santa Barbara for Anaheim, some one male in my family stashed my camera cord and I’ve yet to locate it. It seems they remember packing it, but, uh, yeah… not sure where. Somehow, this little glitch doesn’t bother me—I’m guessing that the smell of chlorine on a balmy night has something to do with this nonchalance.
Our annual trek to warmth and Disney is almost over. Soon, we will be back in the northwest, ready to take on the tasks this month naturally brings having soaked up enough vitamin D to last us. Or so we hope and so we pray. The weather here as been priceless, even if our health hasn’t. Of course, IZ came down with this “gunk” and we’ve all stayed very well medicated. I suspect we’ve staved off infections which is a good thing. It hasn’t dampened our spirits… we’ve been soaking in the sunshine, banking for rainy days headed our way.
But we are not home just yet. No, we have a few more moments of basking in this sunlight and happiness. And we’ve managed to live this week large, cramming more into it than most. I’m finding that I still enjoy people watching most. It’s a no-charge ride, never the same twice. However, for all the running around we’ve done, I’ve still managed to check on this blog—at least enough to read comments and chuckle at your amazement over my “well-being.” Evidently, I have some “splainin'” to do regarding my hair among other things… and I promise answers, I do. It’s just right now, the sunshine has taken me hostage. I intend to be held captive as long as possible in this heaven.
 
 
 
 
