Fun Fun Fun....

.... in the LBC, yo. We went to the Long Beach Aquarium today with our friends who have kids the same age (very nearly) as Peanut. They got to see fish and lorikeets and seals and otters... It was very fun.



I also got an apocalyptic sunburn which is making me now feel both hot and weirdly dizzy. So that is awesome. But it really was a beautiful day and I just (as I do at least once a year) forgot that I am an albino freak that belongs in a circus in Siberia where people can come and gawk at my strange coloring. Oh how I wish I could tan....

One of Those Weeks...

Well the "cold" turned into an ear infection for Peanut. (Mine disappeared into nothingness). So that is awesome. Oh, did I mention the vomiting? Because there has been a lot of vomiting. Oh and snot. And coughing. Not a lot of sleep, though.

In fact, I am currently trying to wait out the kid while she babbles to herself in her crib. Mommy just needs you to take a nap. I mean Mommy REALLY NEEDS YOU TO NAP FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

It has truly been one of those weeks that I wish was already over. Today I have laid the sleepy girl down THREE TIMES only to have the following wake her up:

1) The girl cat vomiting. Because I haven't cleaned up enough vomit this week.

2) The boy cat trying to pop open my bedroom door, no doubt so that he could vomit on my bed.

3) What sounded like a nail gun from next door (the house next door is about 11 feet away from her window, so that rocks that the new owners are gonna do some improvements.

I am not kidding at all- our street has been HGTV-home-improvement-village since I went out on maternity leave. One of our direct neighbors tore up their lawn to put in a Japanese style dirt garden. Which I am sure consumes a lot less water, but does attract a large number of cats who see it as a very large litter area. This involved many many trucks and an enormous dumpster parked in front of my house for about a month.

THEN across the street our older neighbor died and a woman who I think is his sister inherited his 1915 bungalow. A very nice place, that just needed a little bit of TLC. So, of course, she tore it down and built what appears to be exactly the same thing, except without the craftsmanship and attention to detail. Oh, and a complete lack of taste, too. Also, she actually had the temerity to ask me to move my car (as I was strapping in the baby into the car seat- TO LEAVE IN LIKE, A MINUTE) so that a workman's truck could park there. If I hadn't really had to go, I would have gotten Peanut out, flipped the bird and walked back inside. The woman hasn't even EVER introduced herself or even made any sort of apology for the dirt that lands on my car and runs into the storm drains every day, or the noise from the construction that has woken my baby up about five hundred million times (they have their workmen working 6 days a week, so even on Saturday we get woken up AT SEVEN AM).

Then, the Persian palace across the street is being worked on AGAIN, so Mr. Persia himself has to come out and SCREAM at the workers for not working hard enough for him. That guy is crazy. There is a story that I heard about him from another neighbor that may or may not be true about how when his youngest boy was a baby, he thought his wife wasn't paying enough attention to him so he HID THE BABY IN A CLOSET AND THEN ACTED LIKE THE BABY HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED. His wife called the police and then they found out that he hid the baby to teach his wife a lesson. Um, yeah, it's a fun street.

Anyhow, my mom is graduating this week with her doctorate in something. I actually don't know what it is in, because it is from a certain Christian university that (I kid you not) teaches that the world is 6000 years old in their "science" classes. So I do take that "doctorate" with a grain of salt, even though I am sure she has been working very hard even if is less academic than another college. I guess I'll be able to call her "Dr. Mom" after Friday.

Also, my grandpa from Tennessee will be in town this weekend for my mom's graduation, so he will get to see my daughter for the first time. That should be fun!

Well, I feel better now that I have vented a bit. Peanut hasn't peeped in a while, but there is now (this is, sadly, not a joke) an electric saw, two elementary school age neighbor boys, and hammering echoing down the street. I hope she's in a deep sleep. Mommy needs a nap.

It's Summertime, and the Living Ain't Easy...

Peanut and I have colds, just in time to coincide with the 90 degree heat. So we didn't get to go to the Dodger game (which was actually in the middle of the day today instead of a night game-YUCK) and I have been sneezed on, coughed on, and generally been cried upon today. So now Peanut is a diaper, howling as she drags her toy from room to room. I still like her, somehow.

I have been thinking about writing something, sewing something, doing something, making anything. But I am in the thralls of this terrible feeling of ennui and stillness. All I can do is think, I cannot do. I feel as if I am waiting for some indefinable moment to be able to break my own stillness. It is a strange feeling.

I hope the heat breaks, the moment comes. So I can just do something.

Pic-a-palooza.

Safety first.


A Little Bit of Nature.


Staplers Have Feelings, Too.


This is the sign posted next to the door in the one room bathroom at the Tustin Pinkberry. It is a small room with four walls, no mirror, simply a toilet and a sink and a door. Which is clearly labeled:

Oakley Hall

The one and only Oakley Hall passed away. My wonderful writing teacher, known as Rebel Girl wrote this about him. She also quoted him, from his novel "Warlock" which I was lucky enough to hear him speak about:

"But those I love more do not sleep, and see no hope, and suffer for those brave ones who will fall in hopeless effort for us all, whose only gift to us will be that we will grieve for them a little while; those who see, as I have come to see, that life is only event and violence without reason or cause, and that there is no end but the corruption and the mock of courage and hope."

What a beautiful and heartbreaking sentence. The world is a lesser place today.

Interesting Things Afoot...

Well, I guess. Boo is funny.

And I wrote a haiku about work:

Payment was rejected;
The address was invalid,
Call for assistance.

Yes, I wrote a crap haiku about my super boring job. But really? That TOTALLY IS WHAT I DO ALL DAY. Oh yes, I am completely fulfilled. Perhaps some people love and are made complete by their jobs. I mean, I don't know them, but I am sure they exist. But I bet they don't do what I do. Or they have been doing Salvia. I just heard about that. People will just smoke anything, huh? I love that one of the "side effects" listed on Wikipedia is "uncontrolled giggling". Um, ok.

I'll be back sooner rather than later. I hope.

Another Crazy Weekend....

Grocery Shopping! Target! Bed Bath AND Beyond!

Last night we were supposed to play board games with our neighbor and his boyfriend (who we LOVE) but I fell asleep at like, 9:15 PM. So R went over alone and I slept until 8:30 AM!!! AND SO DID PEANUT!!! (I have to admit that she did wake up for about 20 minutes at 3 AM, but still. Let's take those victories where we can, shall we?

Today Peanut took five whole steps by herself. Granted, she then sat down, with no apparent interest in walking alone. She likes to push stuff and to walk holding R or my hand, but she hasn't really gotten to the point of wanting to walk alone. Soon, I guess. I kind of like that I don't have to really chase her on foot yet.

There's a tour of Long Beach homes coming up, spotlighted in The Press Telegram. I wondered what it would be like if someone wrote a similar piece about our house...

"Open the glass paned door, missing the bottom left hand panel and you will find yourself surrounded with the past two years of Fisher Price catalog, perhaps you will also trip on a stroller... Edge your way into the kitchen (if you can squeeze by the high chair crusted with last night's meal) and your senses will come alive! Is that a stray piece of onion you're stepping on? What is that stain on the countertop? And who can live with that many dishes in the sink? Is that LEAD PAINT peeling in the cabinets?"

Ok, so maybe it isn't quite that bad. I mean, I did mop today.

This is going to be SHORT

I am so tired, and I really want to post about this very clever thing that Uma Thurman said during an interview with NPR's Terry Gross, but I am too tired to find the receipt I wrote down the quote on. So instead, for now, here's a picture of the virgin mary inside a giant cement egg on my mom's neighbor's lawn. It's just so Mork and Mindy. Nah-Nuu Nah-Nuu.