weapons of massdistraction

Yesterday marked the first time I’d thought to go out for a solo walk while the little man was at school. My destination, the neighborhood coffeehouse. If you’re going to fall off the wagon you may as well fall hard. I purchased a pound of French Roast (half off on Mondays), and a baguette for good measure. Unfortunately my return walk left me with this niggling feeling that something wasn’t quite right. A suspicion which was confirmed later in the day when I came down with a cruddy cold, the same one, I suspect, that the little man succumbed to earlier. The only one way to distract myself from how useless and lousy I was feeling…reading an Elizabethan Cyborg Romance novel cover to cover, naturally. Sadly today I am not feeling any better (in fact, marginally worse) so I’ve started in on the sequel. Another entirely worthy distraction, which you may or may not have already seen, is the amazing sketchbook site of Kevin Cornell. Gorgeous design, mad skills, and a wicked sense of humor. The man has it all. Just be careful when poking the bear.

An excellent weekend, thus far. Decided to give up on giving up. Two weeks into my coffee withdrawal and I realized it wasn’t worth it. Every day I woke up all achey, and severely lacking in the motivation department. All I looked forward to was crawling back into bed. But that changed Friday. Just one strongly-brewed cup later and I was dancing around my house, literally, listening to some old New Order while cleaning. Later on I was ready to step out, and was able to do so as the little man had an impromptu overnight visit with his grandma. I made it out for some mingling at the Poster Offensive. Bumped into several friends, including some favorite local bloggers. Afterwards I caught a showing of Shaun of the Dead with the Daves and Huey-Ling. It was perfect.

“Ridiculous and heartfelt, it’s both the funniest zombie movie and the scariest romantic comedy you’re likely to ever see.”

Indeed. Didn’t, however, make it to Mizna’s film festival, as I was anxiously awaiting the little man’s return. His grandmother gave me a rather large window of time during which to expect him, and as the hour grew later I started missing the lad more. At one point there was a false alarm. The doorbell rang so I excitedly rushed to answer it. I flung the door open and, instead of seeing my son, found myself face to face with two men in suits. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Extricated myself from that situation as quickly as possible. Eventually my boy came back to me, though he was a bit tired and under the weather. Since mom hadn’t gotten much sleep we were both content with lying about much of the day, and playing with his new toys. Today looks like more of the same. Can’t complain. And I’ll be doing it with coffee.

Just got word that my friend Justin will be DJing at a political poster show opening this Friday night. Sounds interesting, and it’s free. The show runs this weekend only, September 24th - 26th.
Here’s more info:

Opening Reception Friday, September 24, 2004 @ 7:00pm
Refreshments & Tank Goodness Cookies
DJs: Justin Martinez and Ben Pagel
Location: Frank Stone Gallery
1224 Second Street N.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55413

Utilizing the politically potent medium of the poster, the second Poster Offensive is an opportunity for artists to take action and use their voice and talents to make a statement during a very critical time in not only American history, but also world history. This event is an independent, nonpartisan show, featuring contemporary interpretations of political dissent. Participants were enlisted from the creative autonomy of Minnesota’s ever vibrant design landscape.

Participants include: Aesthetic Apparatus, Todd Bartz, Anchalee Chambundabongse, Mike Cina, Gerry D’Amour, Hilary Davis, The Decoder Ring Design Concern, Chank Diesel, Andrea Floren, Chad Hagen, Robb Harskamp, Amy Jo Hendrickson, Steve Jockisch, Haley Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Katie Kirk, Matt Larson, Justin Martinez, Patrick Maun, Kelly Munson, John Neerland, Sarah Nelson, Ben Pagel, Aaron Pollock, John Reichel, Jarrod Riddle, Nate Strandberg, Jason Strong, Adam Turman, Sharon Werner, & Jack Wilcox.

An archive of the first Poster Offensive show is available here (sample below).

After dinner last night the little man and I settled in, in his room, to play with the new Legos he’d been given. We didn’t get around to using all 1500 of them, but we gave it a good shot. I started having weird childhood flashbacks, to playing Legos with my brother and the neighborhood kids, and how stressed out I would get when, in the midst of creating, I realized I needed some odd little piece that there were only one or two of, and if I gave voice to this need, out loud, then surely someone else was going to nab my piece, so I would have to surreptitiously search for it with sidelong glances and then oh so carefully, quietly reach for it when the others weren’t looking. Uh, yeah. Last night wasn’t quite like all that. No, it was more about the little man looking through the Lego how-to booklets, requesting I build a certain creature, and then attempting to snatch it from me before I’d finished. That sort of thing I can deal with…and am quite used to. Foolish me, however, didn’t foresee a power struggle come cleanup time. For no good reason that I could ascertain the little man decided to dump all the Legos out of one bucket, just as we were finishing up. Then he had the nerve to tell me to pick them up. Nuh-uh. I had already put away the Legos I had been playing with, thank you very much. So I coaxed and pleaded and prodded and finally lost my patience with the uncooperative little punk and hit him below the belt. Figuratively. I took away his new Batman figurine and announced that it wouldn’t be given back until every last Lego was returned to its bucket. Oh, the emotional maelstrom that was unleashed. My son repeated “I am sad sad sad” and demonstrated this feeling with some faux crying. Which eventually turned into genuine crying when he realized I was serious and wouldn’t budge. I had to leave the room, as the sound of him replacing just one lego piece per minute was too much like Chinese water torture. My departure seemed to spur him into action, though it still took him an age. At least he’d chosen to dump the 500 piece bucket instead of the 1000 piece tub.

It was a fun, if bumpy, ride, and one I am relieved to be over with…until next year. Saturday was spent whipping things into shape for the big birthday party. Just when I felt I had a handle on it all the doorbell rang…three hours before go time. It was one of the older neighbor girls, calling something to my attention. She’d seen some jackassed neighborhood kid intentionally untying and releasing the bunch of balloons that I had just tied to the railing on the front steps. The $20 worth of balloons flew away before anyone had a chance to see them. And though I received not one but two eyewitness reports, neither could ID the perp. I felt like I’d been suckerpunched, but thankfully our fantastic neighbors saved the day. The folks who live behind us still had a half-full helium tank from their daughter’s recent party. They set to work before our other guests arrived. The results were beautiful, and beyond anything I would have dreamed up. The party itself was barely-organized chaos but everything more or less worked out. We had a full house, full bellies, and a crazy number of choice birthday gifts for the little man. There was no way I could have gotten him out and about today, even if I’d wanted to, what with all the shiny new toys to play with right in the comfort of his own home. His only problem was choosing which ones to play with first.
Click here, or on the below image, to launch the gallery.