If I said you had a beautiful blog...

...would you hold it against me?


That's just me being plain silly (the damn P key is stuck on my laptop now so it takes about three strikes to get it). I haven't been _osting much lately and it's not so much that I have nothing to say (one might argue blogging is one big "nothing to say" fest) but lack the time in which to say it. Perhaps motivation has been fairly used up by the evening when the opportunity might just present itself. That's of course, discounting the days when I fall asleep mid-story on one child or another's bed.

Today was the first day of camp. I drove Tali and Julian and Scissors met us there as I continued on to work from there. This morning as we were all in various stages of dress and readiness, Julian was walking around in his underwear and swim goggles. He seemed rather pleased with himself but then came to me and said "the kids are going to make fun of me."

I said "Of course they're not, you're friendly, I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends." I gave him a big hug and he quickly forgot that train of thought. Fast forward to Julian's introduction to the new small group and the little boy who shall hereinafter be referred to as "Pipsqueak" saying "Julian, that's a girl's name!" Julian first bellied up to the offender and said "It is not!" and turned to me and said "see, I told you they were going to make fun of me." This funk lasted for all of two minutes before they were gathering to leave and Scissors met him at his first activity in which he was having a wonderful time.

Of course, it stayed with me the whole day. How would Julian do? Would he be able to manage the changes throughout the day? Would he eat his lunch? Would he go to the bathroom under a new schedule? Would someone be watching him at the pool? Would the thunderstorms hit and he be scared? Would he cry as easily as I might if I gave into it? The answer to all of above were just as you'd expect.

He did fine and I held back the tears...until now.

5 Meme

I'm in a genuine slump. I'm averaging one post per week (well not counting my Saturday Spins). Forget about making it around to my favorite places. That's the down side. The up side is that today is the first day of summer and hope springs eternal. Living is just a little easier (or so the song goes).

During one of my visits to a favorite place in the blogs, Stuffed Animal Planet (the former ex-Pansi Files which was f/k/a the Pansi Files), I noticed that I had been tagged for this 5 Meme that's going around not unlike the bedbug plague that I understand is taking Manhattan - ewwwwww. Perhaps Mrs. Weirsdo felt guilty as I was not nominated by her as a blog that made her think. However, she does not seem to be a person motivated by guilt so I think that shoots a hole in that theory. As I recall the instructions were to remove the top blog and place yours (meaning mine) at the bottom. Would the idea be to visit some new spots? I guess that would be an objective. In turn, I should tag five people which well, I'm just not a tagger. But if you would like to do this and let me know that you have, I'd even maybe mail you a tchotchke. Time to clean out some things anyway.

1) Bipolar Notes From Underground (off meds)
2) This Side Of Reason
3) Full Moon Rising
4) Stuffed Animal Tales
5) Simply Said

Next: select five people to tag. Oops, covered that above. I basically cut and pasted from Weirsdo's post. "Be sure to try and make them feel really guilty if they don't want to play!" That last part was Mrs. Weirsdo's. Come on all you people that I haven't tagged but YOU know who you are! I said that I'd send you a tchotchke.

What were you doing ten years ago?

Let's see - ten years ago I was busy being pregnant with my daughter Tali and hiking in some gorge in Vermont with Scissors. No I was not barefoot. Well not as we hiked anyway. I recall we stayed at the lovely Quiche Bed & Breakfast in Vermont whereby they advised upon checkout that they'd be happy to have us back - alone or when our child was 12. Having Julian, I understand their request.

I was still a desk jockey with the same company/different location. Somehow the group I worked with just made it all the more bearable...or the complaining eventually became a harmonious chorus. We even had a sit-in for one of our coworkers who was going to be transferred (not of his own volition) whereby we sang "all we are saying is give Steve a chance." Proud to say I orchestrated that one. Steve was transferred just the same.


What were you doing one year ago?

Did a year pass by already? I'm sitting in the same spot - maybe I've been sleeping or blogging. Pass that bong. Just kidding! I did just start my blog a little over one year ago. I was crying at Julian's graduation from his preschool. I think I might have been having lunch and meeting my NBFF for the very first time. Ah, a heady year it's been.


Five snacks you enjoy:

1) My mother-in-law's honey cake with a cup of green tea
2) chocolate anything
3) Twizzlers or the even lower rent - NIBS
3) a scoop of ice cream (was that my subconscious - I gave myself two 3's)
5)(no sneaking in an extra). Only because I thought of these for some odd reason on my drive home tonight and have not had one in a good 30 years - Hostess Butterscotch Krimpets. Ooh the memory of its pre-fab goodness has me smiling.


Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:

Sitting here, I can barely think of one, yet start any song on the radio and I pretty much can sing along. Does that count? I've been mulling this meme and in the shower this am, I sang:

1) Don't Leave Me Hanging on the Telephone by Blondie (Parallel Lines is one great album - note to self: dig that out)
2) then driving in my car with no radio on, I sang - Sam Stone by John Prine to see if I knew all the lyrics. I did.
3) Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen (I was singing along with the radio and of course, the windows were down and the volume was up).
4) Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel (my little theatre troupe consisting of myself, my sister Roni and our 4 neighborhood girlfriends performed this one when we put on a variety show in The O'Neill's backyard. We couldn't have been even ten years old. If memory serves me well, I believe the crowd grew hostile and demands were made for refunds. We tried to mollify them by throwing boxes of Good and Plenty candy into the crowd (I know that jingle by heart..."Once upon a time there was an engineer...").
5) This is your spot - leave a song in the comments and let's see if you can stump me.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
"What's all this subjunctive "were" business? I plan to be a millionaire one day!" Could not agree more Weirsdo, although aside from playing Lotto once a year, I'm not sure what I am doing to advance the cause.

Just the same, a girl can dream:

1) hand in el resignation!!! and begin to really explore what makes me happy.
2) fix up the house (or sell it)
2) travel
3) Help family out and support favorite charities (this could of course be seen as the same thing - I'll speak to my accountant).
4) make sure kids are in proper schools/programs/doing something they love
5) Get Scissors season soccer tickets...at Wembley Stadium!

Look at that in proofing I see I've snuck in another #2. Ah well, I'm a millionaire now, I can do that.

Five bad habits:

1) laziness
2) procrastination
3) fidgeting
4) staying up late
5) losing my temper (I should have put that first, but I was procrastinating.)

This could be my list - it's Mrs. Weirsdo's. I cut and pasted to make answering easier. Although for #1, I wouldn't say lazy but perhaps, motivationally challenged. #3 - I'm not a fidgeter, in fact you could replace fidget with sloth. #5 - thanks to the wonderful world of meds - I'm no longer a temper loser. So I'll see Weirsdo's #5 and throw in - using curse words or cussing or swearing or whatever you would like to call it. Not a lot, but it could be construed as a habit. This could also be construed as losing one's temper I realize. Note to self: speak to doctor about meds.

Five things you like doing:

1) reading
2) hanging out with my kids/especially family day Sundays
3) appreciating pretty things/design/collecting pictures of same as inspiration, for instance:

















4) blogging/writing (had to combine the two) It seems I write so little of late. I'll try to do better - for myself at least.
5) trolling through flea markets, craft fairs, art shows.

So that's the meme as I recall it. Please do one and let me know when you have. Remember those tchotchkes! And remember to come visit me in Central Snark over the weekend where we let the music spin.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend all! And if you're in NYC, drop by The World Financial Center and look for a gaggle of bloggers dining by the waterside. Take my advice - keep walking.

The White Shirt...and Chest Pains

On my way home the other evening, I decided to take a little shopping detour. Scissors called me to say, "I'm not feeling that well".

"I'll come home then." I said only half irritated as I thought "some people will do anything to stop me from shopping."

"No just don't be long."

"Okay then - be home soon."

As I fumbled the cotton of the white shirts (because you can never have too many white shirts and I seem to not have any) in Banana Republic, my cell phone rings. "I'm having a chest pain." Scissors tells me.

"A chest pain!" fumble fabric, "I'm coming home now." May G-d forgive me that I had the presence of mind to make a couple of mental notes for future reference on my way out the door.

I rush home in the car and swing the household into Battle Station Butterfly Emergency Mode. First call Scissors' doctor's office who says that I need to take him to the hospital ER. We're all pretty level headed for an emergency except for Scissors who insists that I shouldn't call the doctor, he'll be fine. Tell him to get dressed. Tali instructs me to go into the other room when I call Grandma so as not to get Julian upset. Julian hears me mentioning the doctor and comes in to tell me "I hate to see Daddy in pain." Sweet child. I assure him Daddy's okay but we have to take him to make sure everything is alright. We drop the kids at Grandma's and head on the road but not before Grandma asks if I've eaten.

We get to the hospital and the emergency room is pretty full but not terrible. Finally Scissors gets called in and has blood drawn and an EKG done. The EKG is normal and we have to wait for the bloodwork. He's wheeled to the back and wait we do. His pain is not strong and is more of a dull ache at this point, yet he rates it a 6 when the nurse asks. I tell him that's why women have babies because he most certainly is overstating his pain index.

Besides the poor old people who have been given a break from their nursing home setting to have a little vacation in the hospital, you have your various and sundry ER characters. First up - the patient released from the hospital after surgery, in for more pain killers yelling "Nurse! Doctor! Nurse!! Nobody gives a F*&$!". Next we have the dapper drunk who we first thought was a doctor until he fell into Patient Number One's bed. Apparently he has missed a flight to LA having gotten tanked in the airport and instead will wake up in a Queens ER. He is being pumped with coffee and accusing everyone of taking something that he has most certainly lost (or been alleviated of) in his drunken stupor. We then have a man of I'd say Afghani decent perhaps who is becoming hysterical because his brother went out to get something to eat. When the brother returns he begs of the doctor to take good care of his brother. The doctor asks if they have insurance. That seemed a bit callous to me. The answer, in short, was no. The doctor said he'd be back. Um hmmm.

Scissors and I were taking this all in from his bed - him lying down, me sitting on the end - as if it were a new comedy series. We needed to pass the time somehow. Long story short, he was not having or did not have a heart attack, but still not sure what caused the pain.

I went out to call home and let Grandma and the kids know that Daddy's okay just being held for tests. I go back in and drop in the Bathroom. As I am in the stall the phone rings and Tali is calling asking if we're coming home soon. I walk out of stall to wash hands and tell her we'll be home soon when a man walks out of one of the other stalls. I laugh and say "Am I in the Men's Room?!" and he laughs and says "I'm not sure, I think I may be in the Women's Room. I said uh oh when I heard you on the phone." We both laughed, and washed our hands.

Back in the ER, we finally get all the tests back which are all good. We leave with no real knowledge of what caused the chest pains but with a few laughs and an ER bill. Scissors saw a cardiologist the next day and will be having a stress test next week. So we'll see what it is and go from there. Hopefully nothing and just as I told Julian "maybe Daddy ate too much and he has heartburn."

On the way home I said "you really didn't think I needed that white shirt, huh?"

"Very funny G, take me home."

And home we went.

Asleep at the Wheel

I was sitting at my desk shuffling papers so as to put them in the right priority of what to put off first when Narnia alighted my doorway and just launched into a conversation as if we had been talking all along. She talks in this incredulous tone as if she's giving you the most amazing news. It might be a cultural thing - she's originally from the Philippines.

"My son picked me up last night and right between exits 51 and 52, a man just decided to go to sleep right there." her voice building to a crescendo. "Probably he just wanted us to go around him, my son laughed".

"Let me understand this correctly" I say, "the man was sitting in traffic?"

"No!" exclaims Narnia "he was just sitting there in the middle lane asleep."

"With no cars in front of him?" I venture.

"No, just sitting there so everyone had to go around him. We were in the HOV lane" she explains helpfully.

"From my way of thinking, why would the man decide he's too tired to drive and just stop and go to sleep right in the middle lane of a highway? Wouldn't he just have gone to the shoulder of the road?" I ask.

"Yeah, that's true!" Narnia cries.

"I mean what if the guy was dead?" I ask trying to hide my growing irritation.

"That's true, I hope he got home okay" she says.

"Me too." I offer.

Bad Moon on the Rise

I'm so preoccupied with getting Julian's summer camp situation resolved right now that my concentration level is flailing (starting off with the attention span of a gnat is not helpful). I've begun four different posts and they all went nowhere fast. I think that may be lucky for you. I'm in the zoned out pre-zone in which I can do nothing but look obsessively at design blogs. I am sure that will really help resolve the issue. In fact, I'm certain. In fact, perhaps Julian should stay home with Grandma and make pin cushions and throw pillows for the summer.

For those of you who are fairly new in these parts, Julian is my son who is five years old. He has some developmental delays which sometimes make life difficult for him, sometimes funny - but always interesting. The good news is that his difficulties are not such that they would warrant him to be in a separate Special Education year round program. This is unfortunately also the bad news because as such, he is not eligible for certain services that he receives during the course of the 10 month school year.

I won't bore you with administrative details but we would love for Julian to be able to participate in summer camp. We are having a difficult time finding the right fit. He probably will not be able to go to the same camp (as we had hoped) with his sister because the Board of Ed will not provide the needed assistant to shadow Julian (as he has in his school setting).

But we continue to seek solutions and try to provide what is best for Julian. Sometimes I feel as if I'm in one of those bad dreams where you're trying to run, but can't seem to get anywhere.

Speaking of running, Julian just won his little running race in his Class Olympics last week. It was a shining Chariots of Fire moment for sure.

I'll be round to catch up on all my favorite blogs (that's right, yours), once I can get an indicator of what direction we're even going. I hope that's soon. You may find me making pin cushions with Grandma. I really wish that I could sew, so that's a good start.