For the last couple of months I’ve been dreading this date, but also looking forward to moving beyond it. Today is the day Felix should have been born. Well, it was the estimated due date at least. It’s sort of an arbitrary thing, because not all babies are born on their due dates. But it’s a pretty big milestone nonetheless. I feel like I should *do* something today, but I’m not sure what. It’s probably a good thing I don’t drink. But I may go to a bar. I’ve been a long-time fan of Damien Jurado but have never seen him play. Tonight he has a show at the Turf Club (where my grandma used to waitress, back when she still had a B-52s style beehive). A snippet about Mr. Jurado from sub-pop’s site:
Damien has been known to make the ladies cry at his shows with his sincere tales of love and loss. He is also a fabulous breakdancer.
Perfect. That’ll fit the bill nicely. And I’ll raise a glass (filled with a Shirley Temple, no doubt) to Felix.
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Because I am tired and feeling weird today, some random little man quotes I have been saving up:
- I want a robot in my pants. (meaning that he intended to put a robot toy in his pocket before we left the house)
- You can’t go to work, it’s Spring Break! (it was, for him)
- But I like to go downstairs when I’m naked.
- Good monsters live in the light. (that was most random)
- Is that like big kid daycare? (asking about college- the boy is wise beyond his years)
- And lastly, one of the strangest things I’ve said recently - “you put that hippo in your mouth right now mister” - referring to his chewable vitamin. He only wants to consume the lions and tigers for some reason.
Initially I had big plans for today, as it was the little man’s first day back to school after Spring Break, and thus my first little man-free day off in a while. But nobody slept well last night, what with the boy’s bed-hopping and the husband’s work pager going off at all hours. I did make it to my first appointment with a personal trainer at the Y this morning (when I told a friend of these plans he looked at me, paused, then asked “who are you?”) and that went well enough. Driving home I was energized, ready to tackle my To Do list with renewed vim and vigor. Then I actually got home. And showered. And crawled back into bed like the sloth-like creature I really am.
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It’s time for the doom and gloom machine to take a little break. I’ve got some diverting distractions lined up for the weekend. This afternoon will mark the little man’s third swimming lesson (and boy howdy is this one going to be fun, he’s already saying he doesn’t want to go). Tonight will be better. The lovely Zophia and I are going to the MN RollerGirls’ “Pretty in Punk” bout (though it’s sad that the original roller derby queen, Ann Calvello, passed away just last week). Tomorrow is another flickr photowalk. That ought to be a good time. And Sunday we’ll be heading to the burbs for a long overdue visit with the ‘rents.
For those who haven’t seen ‘em yet, click on the photos below to launch the four flickr photosets I created, from our recent Icelandic adventures.
The thing I hate most about going on vacation…coming back. And becoming re-immersed in the reality of day-to-day life. My elderly cat is dying. The last couple of weeks she’s been losing weight, but still behaving normally, so I was thinking “maybe I should take her to the vet.” So today I did. And it turns out she has a massive tumor in her abdomen, off of her liver. Her last checkup was in November and at that time she was in good health, for her age, and weighed in at 9.1 pounds. Today she was down to 7.4 pounds. I cringe when petting her now because I can feel her bones. There isn’t much we can do at this point. She’s still comfortable and not in pain. Yet. Some time in the next few weeks or months I’m going to have to take her back to the vet…but I won’t be bringing her home.
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It’s been a strange week, featuring back-to-back blizzards and more. Out of the blue I was interviewed by Chris Hewitt, of the Pioneer Press, for a story about people who write fiction in coffee shops, which I do. I think that went well (but we’ll see how it is in print, tentatively slated for April 2nd). What was more nerve-wracking was having my photo taken. I prefer to be on the other side of the camera. Still, I met the photographer dude at Caffetto yesterday morning. Chatting with him was nice but disconcerting as he kept snapping off pix of me for an hour. Literally. During this process I was to act naturally, typing away on my powerbook. I tried to pretend I was writing something, but my concentration was shot. Instead I was really IMing with friends, one of whom had me freaking laughing and looking like a total dork because he was sending absurd ASCII art and choice lines like:
Remember… lioness in jungle! Lioness in jungle!
Do you think if you just lapsed into pirate talk he’d freak out?
or Cockney slang?
Cover one eye with a biscotti and yell, “YARRR, thar be photos!”
Oh my. How could I possibly keep it together?
In other news, we leave tomorrow. Yowza. We do have all passports present and accounted for now, but I need to run up to Kinko’s to make the suggested photocopies. While perusing the State Department’s site I came across this fabulous fact sheet for Iceland:
Extreme care should be exercised when touring Iceland’s numerous nature attractions, which include glaciers, volcanic craters, lava fields, ice caves, hot springs, boiling mud pots, geysers, waterfalls and glacial rivers. There are few warning signs or barriers to alert travelers to potential hazards. Several tourists are scalded each year because they get too close to an erupting geyser, or because they fall or step into a hot spring or boiling mud pot. High winds and icy conditions can exacerbate the dangers of visiting these nature areas.
Mmmm, boiling mud pots. Anyhow, today I have a metric crapload of laundry to do. Once washed I will have to select portions of it to pack, without over or underpacking for the trip. In the past I’ve had limited success in this department. Once I went to NYC for a full week with just one pair of pants (and I went on no shopping trips while there) but generally I err on the side of overpacking.
Bonus: My word, iTunes is so dangerous. I arbitrarily decided I was in the mood for The Cars, and they were just a couple of clicks away, of course. I’m not a completist though, so I settled on an EP containing five of their classics. Wow, I didn’t remember their songs featuring hand claps so heavily, but they sure do.
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Guess I shouldn’t have been worrying about rain over the weekend. It was all about the Monday morning snow. It was absolutely grueling, commencing with a two-hour round trip commute to nowhere, through white-out conditions. I should have just stayed home with the little man, but his school district was one that didn’t shut down. But his school sure did. A crucial piece of information I gleaned over halfway through our journey, when I decided to get fancy and use my cell phone to, you know, actually call the school. Oh the glory of technology. I couldn’t fathom turning right around for a continuation of the white knuckle drive, so we took a much-needed break at Seward Cafe. Thank the heavens they were open. Afterwards I tried to pick up a few groceries at the Seward Co-op, just next door, but they were only selling non-perishable items…as the coolers were mysteriously out of commission. No fresh tofu for you! Back in the car we went, only to get stuck in the damned parking lot. After my blood pressure had skyrocketed I managed to get us out onto the street… and stuck at the first intersection we approached. Stop and go, that is the tempo. Eventually we made it home, safe and sound, but not in the damned driveway (stuck, yet again, and after getting unstuck I had to drive around the block just to get parked in front of the house). It was a three-and-a-half hour ordeal from start to finish. And when we entered our abode we found the husband, just waking up. Bitter? Who, me? At least we got some neat photos out of the morning. View the snow day set here.
Before the blizzard hit we got out and about on Sunday afternoon. The little man had a visit with his bio-dad while the husband and I went to see Tristram Shandy: a Cock and Bull Story. Fucking fantastic, and just what I needed (and amazing that the husband and I were is such agreement as to which movie to see). Afterwards the three of us had dinner together at Evergreen for the first time in ages. The food was marvellous, as usual, but the little man was being a pain in the neck for no apparent reason. Now I’m seeing this defiant streak the school has been speaking of. I’m pleased that he’s coming along, developmentally, but this is a phase I could do without (oh please, let it just be a phase).
There is much too much to be done before we leave for our trip on Friday. I’ve begun using the Backpack web app for my incessant list-making, and that does have a calming effect on me, but I’m still in panic attack mode. I’ll try not to hyperventilate.
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Wow, 50 degrees. I really should get my bike out of the basement before the rains come. I’d say there’s a 50% probability of that happening.
Poor Chuck. He seemed fine at the office on Thursday. Then he took off Friday for Tex-ass, for SXSW, where he wound up in the hospital. With Strep Throat. Easily treatable, yes, but also a pain in the ass. And man, I hope I wasn’t contaminated. We leave for our trip this coming Friday.
Bonus: Speaking of which…today the New York Times has an article about what a good time of year this is to travel to Reykjavik. Don’t I know it.
Plus: I started my morning off with Daniel’s homemade rap song, with accompanied video. Check out the nerdcore, yo.
And: Love the Good Wood Gang toys (found via flickr, of course). I want them all! Well, all right, maybe not the Mr. T.T.T. Burger toy, unless he’s a veggie burger.
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Still on my Farscape kick, aided and abetted by Netflix. Last night I watched the most recent disc and boy howdy. There was your standard plot where the beefcake main character has to pretend to be someone and something he is not. And I must say, Ben Browder does a painfully bad Australian (British?) accent. It was so awful that I wouldn’t have been able to guess just what type of accent he was going for, if I hadn’t known the context. Honestly, I don’t know how the rest of the cast and crew could take it. I nearly turned it off. But that doesn’t mean I’m not begging for more. Yes, I have a problem.
The little man had his second swimming lesson today. Once again we arrived a bit early, but this week the pool was nearly empty…because it was so incredibly warm and gorgeous outside. This gave us time to chat with one of the only other occupants of the pool, a very sweet eight year-old boy. When he saw the little man inadvertently swallow some pool water the boy said “oh, you don’t want to do that. The water has Listerine in it. The whole pool is full of it.” My mind ran with that. I was hoping it was Cool Mint instead of Natural Citrus. Ewww.
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I made an attempt to get the menfolk out of the house, because it is so crazy warm out there today, but the menfolk, they aren’t having it. The little man did change into shorts and a t-shirt, but strictly for indoor purposes only. Probably for the best. There’s some sort of air quality alert today. Sigh.
Yesterday was the day for fashionable vegan-friendly bags. Popgadget posted about the Queen Bee bags, available via Buy Olympia and OTSU (it’s probably just as well I didn’t make it to the latter the last time I was in San Francisco - I would have really blown my wad). Then someone in the comments mentioned Stitchpixie (her monster-faced coin purses are so very cute) and someone else pointed me in the direction of Matt&Nat. They make vegan-safe bags and fabulous footwear too. But why do their kickass Trinity boots have to go for $125?! Youch.
Bonus: Folks are heading down to SXSW soon for films, interactive panels, and to rock. I’ve only skimmed the listings, but there seems to be a lot of good stuff in too little time, as usual. Naturally my eye was drawn to a short film called Vegan Candy.
Plus: This so isn’t ready for prime time yet, but fear can be a great motivator sometimes. Ok, deep breath. I’ve mocked up what the site redesign will look like. There’s still some tweaking to do, and I’ll need a lot of help from the husband this weekend to move all of my archives into the CMS. But I think we’re actually going to do it this time. Here’s a sneak peek. Be gentle, please.
And: So I’ve been on this Beastie Boys/Grand Royale email list forevah, and it doesn’t get much traffic, like, at all, but I did get a heads up last night. ONE NIGHT ONLY - on March 23rd, to be specific, movie theaters across America will be screening a sneak preview of Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! Except that, in the less than 24 hours since I received said email, the title of the movie has already been toned down to An Awesome Night with the Beastie Boys. Hmmm.
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We leave for Iceland one week from Friday. The little man’s passport showed up a couple of weeks ago, but the husband hasn’t gotten his back just yet. I was supposed to remind him to call about it on Monday, but I failed to do so. So yesterday morning I pulled a large piece of cardboard out of the recycling bin, wrote “CALL PASSPORT OFFICE” on it and left it on his desk, as he wasn’t awake yet. This was unnecessary as he had, apparently, already called on Monday. And was told it would arrive on the 15th or 16th. But we leave on the 17th, so he wound up having to expedite it after all. The worst part about this…he claims he imparted this information to me on Monday but I wasn’t listening, like, at all (I was actually working on the redesign of this site). So he was all “thanks for paying attention to me when I speak.” Doh. Bad wife strikes again.
We’ve established that I am an NPR nerd. One of the best parts of my morning commute is listening to Future Tense. This morning’s segment featured la la, a new online music service that is offering full-length CDs for one dollar plus 49 cents shipping by letting members trade used discs. Naturally I signed up asap. Tonight I plan to rummage through stacks of my forgotten CDs, ones that have been sitting around collecting dust, and offer them up for trade.
Bonus: On a related note, my first and foremost LaLa association will always be with the lovely and multi-talented Alison.
Plus: Yesterday I was chatting with some co-workers and wound up recounting Afrojet’s harrowing tale from a few years back (when he was ludicrously detained, temporarily, as a suspected terrorist just because he was taking some photos). Later I sent them the links. One replied with: “Shoot back! Long live sousveillance!” I declare that to be the word of the day.
And: I have Kielbasa breath. Lunch is over. Time to get back to work.
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