Monday, October 27, 2008

second, third carvings

carvings no.2 and no.3


don't worry, i'll be voting.

random smattering

my thoughts don't connect lately. come to think of it, they haven't connected properly since harlan was born. i know i'm not the only mom who has (or has ever had) this problem...but damn, it's annoying.

*halloween. harlan is afraid of his halloween costume. it was bound to happen, that i would birth a child who just didn't really 'care' for halloween.

to my chagrin, he picked out a goofy little dragon costume at kmart (that's what you get for taking him to kmart, loser). he loved it, he roared with it, he cuddled on his little thomas couch with it. then, when it came time to put it on him, he lost his tiny little toddler mind. it didn't help that the more he screamed, the more i laughed. i couldn't fathom someone being afraid of a goofy green dragon with a metalic green lamme tail. this is my thought; he loved this dragon, he put it in his stuffie house (tent) with all of his other stuffed animals, there it lived, happily among the stuffies, until one awful and tragic day, mama and papa came to take dragon away, disembowel the dragon and make harlan wear his skin. i can see how that would be disconcerting, if not traumatic. we may be a sheet ghost this year.
last night we carved pumpkins with friends. hubby and i were so excited to let harlan get all goopy with the pumpkin guts...kids love goop, right? no, harlan took one look at what we were doing, went "ew", and walked out of the room. he was not impressed with our carving prowess. we had cut up his pumpkin, and that was not cool. harlan's next offense will be hating candy. if that happens, i'm done. i'm buying him some khaki pants and a mccain/palin cap and calling it a day.


*boobs and playdates. this morning was a playdate at a lovely new yoga studio in somerville called 'moving celebrations'. the kids just ran amok, and laughed and danced, while harlan decided that things were too loud and chaotic, said 'let's go', and headed for the door. he then wanted to nurse, which is highly out of the ordinary, but i figured he was overwhelmed (and later learned he was getting a cold), so nurse him i did.
don't get me wrong, i've never been ashamed to nurse in public, even at harlan's ripe old age of 19 mos, especially in front of other moms...but i'm always surprised by some of the mom's reactions to it. it's not as if they're offended, but they act more awkward than anything. it's so ingrained in us, the repression of our bodies.
here's a tip for some moms; you can speak to me when i nurse my child, you don't have to look away, i know you're not checking out my boobs (and if you are, that's fine too, they're pretty nice). if you aren't nursing your child, that's ok, i'm not judging you, i promise. i assume that you made the best decision for you and your child, and that's fine. i breastfed my child, and will probably continue until he's well passed the age of two, it works for us, it's ok if you don't. i do wish more women were more knowledgeable about breastfeeding (and extended breastfeeding), but i'm not here to make you feel guilty about not breastfeeding your child (i'll leave that task to la leche league).


* hulahooping. a few years ago i bought a couple of miles worth of pvc tubing and made a friend a 'real' hulahoop (not one of those tiny little kiddie ones you buy at toysrus that NO ONE can use). i neglected, somehow, to make myself one. i'm putting it on my to do list (again).

* tennessee. in one week, we'll be driving the 22 hours down south to tennessee to see my family. i imagine road tripping with a 20 mos old will be just about as much fun as having a hot steel poker in your ear, but i'm full of optimism.

* on nov.4 i'm voting for obama and closing my eyes and hoping for the best. don't let me down america, you know what to do.

off to some planning. packing. to do list making and rummaging.

cheers.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

first carving


first carving of the season. (btw, pemberton farms has really great pumpkins but they're kind of a rip).

Saturday, October 25, 2008

size 2, you're not so great really.

more and more lately i've become obsessed with my weight. to help with my body image, i've been watching this lovely lady, a 'love your curves' kind of gal.
fuck being a size 2, i need more curves!!

Friday, October 17, 2008

taking it down a notch...

ok, it's almost halloween, i don't have a costume...but i STILL love this commercial!


AND frog.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

the world goes dancing...


i'm sick of politics, i'm sick of hearing about how tanked our economy is and wondering if my family will have enough money to make it through the winter (hubby being in sales and all)...my stomach is in knots, my head hurts and honestly, i really don't want to think about it any longer. other than clip coupons, etc, etc, there's not really all that much i can do about it. it will be, what it will be.

so, this weekend, the lil' family and i went dancing. out into the streets (or sidewalks, rather) of davis square, somerville, mass. the third annual HONK! festival was saturday and it was lovely and amazing as ever. those not familiar with honk!, imagine if you can, a suburban fellini film, blend in a little down home marching band, some lousiana style horns and sauce, squish it all together and stuff it into a four block area and you have HONK!. davis square's minuscule answer to burning man.
it's family friendly and loud, and everyone dances in the street with abandon, even the cambridge liberal elite (heavens!). best thing about HONK!, it's free! all that music, all that fun, all those dancin' freaky deaky hippie types, for FREE!

i will say, if you bring a baby, bring him some earplugs. harlan was a little stunned. his parents are irresponsible (gasp!). but, after he got used to the crazy, he loved it. stilt walkers, fire eaters, fire tossers, hoola hoop girls, giant horn sections, carnivale dancers, bass drums and toms, crazy costumes and a parade. what more? what more?

so, thanks. thanks to all the little people who organized the festival this weekend. thanks for taking my mind off the reality that is my life and everyone else's. we needed the respite, can't wait for next year.

this footage gives a little bit of the feel of the music at the festival. this band happens to be from somerville (emperor nortons stationary marching band), but the bands were from all over. i'll be posting video as soon as i figure out how to edit my what i shot.

Friday, October 03, 2008

cut the folk talk down to ten, please.

ok, ok. so sarah palin didn't do so bad last night. i almost felt like at the end of the debate she was going to stand out on the platform and go "in your face katie couric!". but, she still sucks. and this is why.
when bush was elected, your average voter said it was because "i felt like i could go out and have a beer with him". now, according to the polls, all of those same people are saying "maybe it's not so good to have a drinkin' buddy run the country"...um, yeah. so, now, miss palin has taken to calling herself 'joe six-pack'...speaking for the common man, filling the debate with all her 'gosh darnits' and 'you betchas' and 'fightin' and a' runnin' and even to the point of winking at the camera several times while speaking. she's a salesman, she's read the book, we get it sarah, now calm down.
i can say, without disrespect, that i come from common people. my family was lower middle class at best, and only one of my parents had even a high school education. my parents didn't have money to send me to college, not even with loans, and they worked their asses off and still do (with no end/retirement in sight).
my parents don't take too kindly to someone speaking to them like children, just because they work hard and don't eat on fine linens (but they do drink their bud light out of a frosty mug, they're not animals). and that's what miss palin sounded like to me, she was speaking to children. almost like a kindergarten teacher. it was off putting and condescending i felt. even though she's had several flub ups with the media, proving that she really isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, she had to at least have enough intellegence to get herself elected gov of alaska.
but, let's face it america, we don't need another bush. we don't need another nickname calling, dagnabbit spouting, rootin' tootin' common man. seriously. JUST LISTEN TO HER. she's speaking down to you america. she thinks your dumb. like her. just like the rest of the world thinks you are. she's "lowering" herself. you know what the similes for 'joe six pack' are when you do a google search?? this is from wickipedia describing definitions for 'john q. public':
"Roughly equivalent, but more pejorative, are the names Joe Six-pack, Joe Blow, and Joe Schmoe, implying a lower-class citizen (from the Yiddish schmo: simpleton, or possibly Hebrew sh'mo: (what's)-his-name)."

joe blow?? c'mon america! do you really want your vice president, possibly president referring to you as 'what's his name' simply because of your common man status???
really?

do what you want america, but i'm tired of the smirks and the winks and the cutsie little common man crap. it's not real, and it's demeaning.
we need a real president, not a character.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

joe six pack????!!

really, sarah, really?

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

quitter

yar. ok, making chain maille is fucking hard, and i'm not sure it's worth it, no matter what it does to hubby. i'm going to watch project runway now.

autumn this a way comes

it's been raining relentlessly for a few days now. our entire house smells like wet dog (thank you miss scout). last evening, i invited a few moms over to our place for a night of knitting and some good ol' fashion chatter. i burned lots of candles and still couldn't quite get the smell of wet dog and fart out of our living room (i think maybe we've changed harlan's diapers on the floor one too many times).
it was a nice evening. lots of mamas, chattering chattering and drinking wine. i felt like a lazy hostess, but whatever, my bathroom was clean, take it or leave it.
regardless of the rain, i'm happy it's finally fall. and i'm excited about the month of october. no particular reason. i love halloween, i love pumpkin soup, i love apple picking, i love bonfires, i love county fairs, i love end of the summer yardsales (even though i'll be missing my favorite favorite place to go in the fall this weekend, the town wide yardsale in warrensburn, new york. oh, so many antique tzotchkes and so little money). i love light weight sweaters, i love thick tights, i love scarves.
i count these things as very important to me, and bailout or no bailout, i'll still continue to be happy about all of them. (you see, it pays to be poor these days. lost my 401K?? what 401K??? HAR!)

last weekend, we took a trip to king richard's faire...a huge renn fest in carver, mass. cheesy, super cheesy...so much cheesy that i almost choked. but harlan had fun, and the jousting was cool, the honey mead was tasty and the giant turkey legs were awesome.
and in the midst of lots of men in tights and fluffy women with squished bosoms, i found a beacon in the night. a chain maille shop. despite what the outfits did to hubby (bowchickabowbow), they inspired me to try to take up jewelry making again.
so, today i bought some little jump rings and maybe tonight i'll try to attach them together in some way so they look creative. and maybe for christmas, i'll actually have something more interesting to make for my dear friends other than knitted scarves and dishrags. woo.

Obama Pictures and McCain Pictures
see Sarah Palin pictures