We had a remarkably pleasant evening last night. I credit it to total avoidance of the aforementioned State of the Union address. I have one thing to say to that matter…from what I’ve read today, it sounds as though, at times, Bush were speaking of himself:
“He said he has fresh evidence that the Iraqi leader he seeks to ‘dominate, intimidate or attack’ with weapons of mass destruction that he could share with terrorist allies.”
So, moving right along…we started the evening off with the delivery and installation of our new oven. No, it wasn’t the expensive dream oven. But a good, well-reviewed, solid compromise. We’ve only used it once thus far. For heating up frozen samosas while we were watching one of my new all-time favorite movies, “Monsoon Wedding” (rent it if you haven’t seen it, trust me on this one). The little man must have found it a bit boring, though, as he fell asleep on my lap soon after we hit play. But if he’d been awake while the song Chunari Chunari was playing, he’d have been dancing all around the living room. It’s one of those songs that stays with you, playing nonstop in your head for days (I’d heard the soundtrack long before seeing the movie, and I’ve been listening to it today). And listening to that has gotten me interested in Bhangra dance music. Some British and North American South Asian DJs (that’s sort of a mouthful) have been taking traditional Punjabi music and remixing it. Naturally the biggest scene is in New York, with the prominent crew Mutiny, cofounded by DJ Rekha. I look forward to seeing the documentary they’ve made about the scene and their music. It’s currently in post-production.

I doubt I’ll be subjecting myself to Bush’s State of the Union address this evening. I have an inkling of what he’s likely to spew. This morning I made the usual rounds, and found an abundance of articles giving good reasons why the U.S. government should not massacre invade Iraq.
“Instead of finding increasingly contorted reasons for going to war, President Bush and Mr. Blair should think about the possible consequences. As The Independent on Sunday has argued in recent weeks, a war risks fuelling terrorist attacks, with Britain becoming an especially vulnerable target. A military attack, even one that is successful in the short term, threatens to destabilise a fragile region, especially as attempts to revive the Middle East peace process have made little headway.”

not to mention:
“Death, disease and starvation await Iraq’s children should war break out, and casualties in the thousands or even in the hundreds of thousands cannot be ruled out, according to a report released Sunday by an independent team of European and American experts.”

Unfortunately it seems the U.S. is itching for a fight, no matter what the cost. So it seems it is no longer if. It’s when.

In somewhat related news, I’d been poking around AlterNet when I came across an article about Salon Magazine’s financial woes. I guess this includes me:
“…Salon is still a great magazine for the Gen Xers and older intellectual progressives, people who are grappling with how to balance the idealistic passion that occasionally bubbles up with the more hard-nosed realism that accompanies the responsibilities of raising kids or caring for aging parents, paying mortgages and school tuition, etc.”
I’ll readily admit, I’ve been reading Salon on a daily basis for years now. It helps me deal with the hard-nosed realism. The opinions expressed there often mirror and/or inform my own. Or make me laugh. Or cry (nearly). Especially those expressed by the amazing Anne Lamott. Here’s an example:
“Your sick worried mind can’t heal your sick worried mind. Well, maybe your mind is lovely and pastoral and you do not have paranoia, hypochondria, a bad attitude and delusions of victimized grandeur. That is very nice, but we don’t want you in our cave after the bombs fall, because you are going to annoy us to death.”
And after tonight’s address by G.W., I may be retreating to my cave…with my sick worried mind.

The Minneapolis Central Public Libary has been closed for several months now. Efforts have been underway to clear out its contents prior to demolition. A librarian friend of ours is working in their temporary location, within sight of the original, and future, sites. This morning she was giving me blow by blow reports…of the wrecking ball’s failure. Turns out the planetarium dome had been constructed a little too well. Thus tactics had to be changed. The wrecking ball was redirected to the side supporting walls. Eventually they brought it down. Alas, by the time I was able to amble over (in uncomfortable boots, on slick sidewalks) I’d missed all the excitement. Story of my life. Or something.

The boy is like a shark. Constantly moving. Never at rest. Even when he is asleep. Or supposed to be. I was out last night. Not very late. Just long enough to catch Buffy with the grrrls (and a boy, who is sorta like one of the grrrls…aside from his failure to grasp why a certain pair of pants were inarguably ugly). Departed before I could be sucked into American Idol (it’s like watching a train wreck). Came home to a quiet house. J had already put the little man to bed. And was himself trying to nap for a bit, before leaving for his night shift. But I broke the quiet. By first disarming, then resetting the home security system. It woke the monkey up. As I was taking off my shoes I heard him cry out upstairs. He met me in the hallway. I hadn’t seen him since the morning so I wasn’t opposed to some hugging/cuddling. I first brought him into our room, where he fussed and woke J up. So plan B was heading back to his room…and lying down with him in his teeny toddler bed. Afraid I’d end up asleep I kept trying to sneak out, but he wasn’t having it. He was tired, but totally awake. Somehow we wound up downstairs. In the comfy red chair. With the monkey making requests for various videos. At 9pm? Nuh-uh. It seemed he would fall back to sleep in my arms. He kept getting oh-so-close, then jerking awake. Eventually I decided we should go back upstairs, but that led to screaming crying hissyfits. Which J wasn’t going to sleep through anyhow. So I had to call the poor guy into the melée. He’s somehow become the enforcer. Especially adept at getting the little man to bed (and to stay in bed). It took a little doing, but then it was done. And all was relatively quiet again. No thanks to me. Sigh.

Much happened over the weekend…but I had little to do with it. I wanted to attend one of the anti-war demonstrations that were going on, but travel isn’t an option just now. Would have settled for a local event, but couldn’t find any listed at Minneapolis IndyMedia. Oddly enough J discovered one such listing…while looking at cnn.com. What the huh? Very strange. It was a candle-light vigil taking place after the little man’s bedtime, so we skipped it. But there is a Women Against Military Madness-sponsored rally/march next Saturday afternoon that I’m planning to attend. Luckily the little man still fits into the stroller (but who knows for how much longer) so I should be able to cruise along with him. But today I’m at work, despite the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Should have taken the day off, but my co-worker/boss beat me to it. When I was in high school (many eons ago) it wasn’t yet a school holiday, in our district anyhow. So a small group of us would leave school each year, take the city bus to the Capitol and attend a rally and march. Most of today’s holiday events are in St. Paul. I was hoping something would be going on near my office. But I may drive over at lunch for the MLK Boulevard dedication.

What I actually did over the weekend…hmmm. Lazed about a fair bit, in my jammies. Finished reading “The Return of the King“. Made some soup. Watched some indie eye candy, C.Q., with J. Made some vegan Mac’n'Cheese, with a side of broccoli (because I’m a big freak…or a little Jawa freak, apparently). Picked up some groceries at the co-op. Dude, what was I thinking with those Gardenburger riblets? Total impulse purchase. Yeah, they were good, but in a wrong sort of way. The texture and taste was a little too meatlike…but the bbq sauce was tasty. I definitely prefer Soul Vegetarian’s BBQ Twist. But Chicago’s more than a stone’s throw away, so I’ll have to stick to the occasional riblets, or homemade bbq tofu. Anywho…the main event of the weekend was a visit to a newly discovered, but hard to find, indoor playground. The little man loved it. I’m sure we’ll be visting again soon.

I swear, I’m always the last to know. Was in a meeting earlier when I overheard something or other. About my entire department moving to another floor. Apparently this has been common knowledge for weeks…but no one ever mentioned it to me. Or in front of me. Or around me…that I can recall. I’m not thinking conspiracy theories here, but it would have been nice if I’d been in on the news. At least I’ve found out before the actual move (date still unknown, to me at least). I don’t think I’d be left behind, but I will need a little time to pack up all of my desk junk. I know from experience that it can take a while. In our old building I personally moved a couple of times. In this new building (July 2001) the department started out on the 25th floor, then moved again to the 26th floor some months later. We’ve been on this floor for over a year now, so it figures that we’re due for a change. In other, happier work news…one of the IT guys took my Mac this morning (leaving me with this here PC). And is upgrading it to run Jaguar, with Macromedia Studio MX. Hopefully it will be returned to me soon, as I’m excited to play around with it. Especially to download and test out Safari. I think I’ll be keeping myself fairly occupied tomorrow. Heh.

Now I have yet another reason to keep eating lunch at my desk. The women in my department decided to go out together as a group today. This hasn’t happened before. Or in recent memory, anyhow. Or maybe they’d never invited me before. After today I probably won’t be invited again. About nine of us went to a semi-swank restaurant just down the block. I verified that the fries were vegan so I ordered a side of ‘em, and a salad (the vegan offerings were a bit limited). After everyone had ordered we started talking about jobs we’d had in high school. Apparently I got a little excited when I was talking about my movie theater job…as I started gesturing wildly with my hands. More wildly than usual, at any rate, as I managed to knock over a tall glass of water. Which crashed loudly into the glass tabletop (nothing was broken) and flooded over half the table, splashing the woman sitting next to me. Doh! We all threw our cloth napkins into the clean-up effort, but one of the waiters still had to mop up a fair bit. He also whisked away my empty glass…so then I was too embarrassed to ask for a fresh one. But one of my co-workers spoke up and asked the waiter if he could get me a sippy cup. Ha ha. So a couple of minutes later he returned. With a plastic to-go cup, that had a lid on it with a straw. And it figures…a little while later I was again gesticulating while pontificating…and knocked the plastic cup over. At least it wasn’t as loud. And the spill was much smaller. Can’t take me anywhere. Sigh.

Thankfully my migraine is waning. But stepping out into the bitter cold and bright sunshine this morning didn’t help matters. Drinking the free coffee at work did. A bit. I am so addicted. In other news, J and I are embarking on another experiment. Cohabitation has been going fairly well, so I signed us up for a Netflix account. I’ve been considering it for a while. Well, since J purchased our DVD player last summer. It does and doesn’t make sense. On the one hand, we love movies. And we’re total homebodies these days…infrequently getting out to the theater. Or out to do much of anything really. But our local video store has a ludicrously limited selection. And on the rare occasions we rent there, we’re invariably tardy returning the goods. Which results in racking up big old late fees. On the other hand, J and I have such wildly different work and sleep schedules. Not to mention that our tastes span the spectrum. Sometimes they overlap. There are a number of films we’ve both enjoyed…like:
“The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.“
“Amelie“
“Anna Magdalena“
“Baraka“
“Koyaanisqatsi“
“Laputa“
The Lord of the Rings films
“The Matrix“
“Memento“
“My Neighbor Totoro“
“Princess Mononoke“
“The Virgin Suicides“
and a few more, I’m sure. But then our tastes diverge. I adore Wong Kar-Wai’s films, which J somehow finds boring. And he loves random films like “The Long Kiss Goodnight“. He’s totally unpredictable. But it’s been some time since we’ve regularly watched any movies together. Our first from Netflix are due to arrive today. I may end up watching “Donnie Darko” and/or “C.Q.” by myself. But it’s safe to say we’ll watch “REVOLUTION OS” together. This should be interesting.

Did not sleep well. Or at all, much. Went to bed at a reasonable hour, but woke up just before 2. Was convinced that something was beeping. Not like the beeping of my alarm clock. And not the beeping of the home security system. But a beeping nonetheless. Got up and peeked into the computer room, where J was staring at his monitor with headphones firmly affixed, as is often the case. But no beeping was to be heard. Went back to bed, but it took over three hours to fall back to sleep…and then it was nearly time to get up anyhow. Had dreams of enemies coming down the river to attack (I’d fallen asleep reading the Two Towers). Woke up with nasty headache. Not going to work until it moves off. Right then. Back to bed.

With age comes greater coordination. For some. Playing catch with the little man is far more enjoyable these days. It used to be that we’d toss the ball in his direction. The ball would then hit him and bounce away. And delayed-reaction boy would look around confusedly a moment or two later. I am happy to report that he now catches the ball with great frequency. And lobs it back at us with alarming accuracy and force (he just needs to learn that underhand throwing is better than overhand, at least in the house). But I doubt we’ll have him juggling before his fourth birthday, a la Anthony Gatto, as his father would like. The little man’s aim still varies wildly. While attempting to use the potty over the weekend he managed to spray far and wide. But while tossing his Buttercup doll in the air, he threw her such that she became hopelessly lodged in an overhead lighting fixture. We still have a wee bit of work to do.