My Mommy! My Mama!

Mama was here today and she always brings a bit of respite to me. I am battling a cruddy cold and in need of packing time. She rolled in with gifts and candy and popcorn and cheap jakey t-shirts for all. She was kind and hardly on my nerves at all today. Finn had a great day- He learned two things:

1. Grandma is my mommy. (long time explaining this one)


2. Frozen snowballs from February kick ass!

I took my students to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center today. You can take yr school groups for free! . It was amazing! I will go back again with my family and explore and talk about using yr voice to speak up for injustice and the spirit of freedom. I learned a ton today and my students had wide wide eyes all day. They loved Sadie, a presenter who talked about freedom in large terms and gave them a pep talk on life. She talked about how even though we are free- we can lose our freedom to drugs, violence, prison, ignorance...She was such a cool woman- she told the kids to take a breath and hold it in- then she asked if she took that breath for them and they all said no! She encouraged them to all realize the power of their free will and to be determined to thrive. She told them they were in charge of their own lives. Very uplifting stuff.

We also gorged ourselves on Skyline Chili while in Cincinnati. It was my last field trip and as I prepare to leave the job(more than a job ever) next week I am sentimental at best... and at worst A WRECK.

Leaving these kids kills.

They have made me a better person-kinder, more complete, less assuming, more fun. They have been my balance for the last 6 years. They were my internship to motherhood. A lot has happened in those 6 years... I lost a student to violent crime, I birthed two babies, I became politically informed on our education system, I grew up.

Teddy J (future President of the United States of America) and I shared my Ipod today on the bus. I schooled him in Bob Dylan, U2, and other music he classified as garbage. I closed my eyes and played that little game with myself where I pretend the music in my ears is the soundtrack to my life. I am living a movie clip and I hear Greenday spin out:

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road

Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go

So make the best of this test, and don't ask why

It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

Teddy says that song is OK.

Human of the Week

Ms. J.


When we worked off the Africa lesson plan today- we talked about tribes and elders and respect. We talked about wisdom that comes with living.




You are my elder.
You are not offended by that title.
You teach me things.
You make me think about life.
You make me appreciate my life by gentle reminders of what can happen to a life. You have unfolded many truths.

I adore you.
I will miss you.

"My Cool Quilt" Age 7

I almost tossed this little quilt- Last month we did the German Village Yard Sale at our rehab house and I found this rolled into a ball in an old box.

My friend bossed me about, telling me not to throw it in the sale. I grumbled and threw it inside the house. It smelled musty and was quite ugly. After the sale it sat in a cardboard box in my yard for three weeks. I finally took it inside and washed it three times and sat down and studied it. I started to recall the fabrics. I asked my gran about it and she said it sounded like one of the cool quilts she had made me from my old toddler clothes. Cool quilts were different because they had no lining- just a cotton backing. They were cool in bed- not too hot. I only liked cool quilts from '79-85 said Mary Frances.

I love that I have this- although, I question my families taste.

I wore dresses made from Mickey fabric? Shirts of 70's plaid?

Anyhoo- I will teach Finn about cool quilts tonight.

note to shattered self

Never again shall you have a baby, sell your home, buy a new home, and rehab an investment property in the same calendar year. Never again bitch.

Our date

Foul mood earlier. Did not really look forward to going to Comfest with my three year old son. I thought the whole family would go. Nope. Dad and babe stayed behind. Sometimes really rotten moods can change. The festival was loud and smelled like life and my son clung to my hand and reminded me that I was his favorite person. I was his protector. We ate and walked and talked to friends and danced and by the time we drove home- I wanted to stay.

We have lots of hats

A lot of our toys are packed away already for the big move.

We were bored.

The 1st deciduous tooth is always a bitch

I wondered why Blaise stayed up all night and refused to take my advice and get some sleep. He popped his first tooth today. -Small slant of gleaming white enamel on his bottom middle gum...how freaking adorable. I forgot what that moment was like with Finn. I was like- YEAH BABY! He's like a real boy.
Teeth are cool and timely in this house. Finn has thankfully stopped biting all his friends and visited the dentist last week. He is very scared of tooth decay and thinks his dentist is the devil. He does however like to suck Crest from the tube.

Just Browsing -Thank You

http://hillaryclinton.com/

Whatever you think..you gotta admit- the Clinton's are media saavy.
Love the sopranos clip...:)
and BTW: in wankerville:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/20/bush.stem.cell.ap/index.html

Go Joe Joe!

My husband just secured his domain.

sharptrim.com

I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard this last year!

He will now have a proper email address and will be able to showcase his fantastic talents on the web! It will be so much more convenient to work from a website and customers will enjoy seeing groovy before and after pics. We hope to have it up and running this summer!(Thank you hunky Kevin)

Yahoo for the best damn British carpenter ever! I am going to make him start a small blog for the website. I need some suggestions for the blog name?????????

Smarty Pants

The first boy I ever loved is really smart. I just found out he is going to start his own company- It is something really sciencey and amazing. He writes papers that Oxford publishes and talks about things like this:

Rigid inter-tetrahedron angular interaction of non-molecular carbon-dioxide
(CO_2) solids

I don't pretend to know what the hell he does in his amazing brain. I know he is working on some gene related data analysis for this company and it just blows my mind.

A million years ago in a town too small for the both of us- he schooled me in camel non filters, really cool music, and broken hearts. Back then I knew he was special. That's why I was gravitated to him. We couldn't be different - us two- but somehow we have stayed friends all these years. I just want to make him my person of the week . JKT- you rock and I am really proud of you.

Passion Works

I've been missing my old hometown...I have found myself googling Athens, Ohio for tidbits-little-hits of the past recently. I found passionworks.org and fell back in love with the art they create. I loved these cards and art so much when I lived in Athens- I am so going to buy this necklace. This is a site to visit- you will be inspired.

Holy Thomas!

RC2 has asked me to give you updated info:

RC2 has issued a voluntary recall on various Thomas & Friends™ Wooden Railway vehicles and wooden train set components. For more details, visit RC2’s recall page at http://recalls.rc2.com.







Just what I need. A recall on the holy grail of boy toys?

Doobleh-vay

.
.

Tony Soprano and my bada bing beating heart

I didn't feel cheated at all. I actually felt a sensation that I have not felt since Six Feet Under was on- connectivity to characters so deep that I tingled inside. My whole body was leaning into the TV and it was such visceral frenzy. I loved the mind rush of the last few moments. It was kinda a sexy feeling- excitement! . I knew I was not going to get a neat little package all tied up with a bow. I knew that I would sink back into the sofa and exhale and sit and think about an investment that I had made into a series that was not so much a mob show, but a series about people- characters I loved. I love HBO. It's a good thing that it's over though- or that we are moving to a new house- because Finn's room is above our TV room now and he can hear the Soprano's as he lies in bed on Sunday nights apparently. Three Sunday's ago I ran upstairs to grab a pillow and he was lying in his bed repeating "my fing dahtta?" quietly like a mouse over and over...

Wow.

Proximal phalanges fracture

My son and his buddy Jack flipped a Starbucks patio table over this morning. It landed on two of Finn's fingers. We went to the hospital and now he has this lovely contraption for 10-14 days. Tell me how I will keep an ace bandage type splint clean on a preschooler? Finn was very brave and only I cried in the examining room. He was fine when I mentioned we could go to Wild Oats afterwards and get some cookies (cookies of the devil). My poor boy.

like all day

So I buy toys that sit untouched. Free moving materials provide hours of entertainment. I think my son is the king of esoteric play. He tells me I can't come in his house (box) because I am not small (duh) and that I don't know how to do magical thinking (whatever). Finn says I am not in this house world. I am cracking a beer at 5pm today.

big scary scissors

We had a major morning. Finn did not cry when I left him at preschool. He normally screams and flips around on the ground like a dry fish. Today he let me leave with some sense of peace. The reason this happened is that Finn found the scissor box at preschool. Scissors are cool. I was alarmed that these are the scissors he would use:

Instead of these:

Oh My God.

soldiers

3,501
devastating

Uncle Joe and the very large tear

I am taking my son Finn to the funeral home tonight to see our dear friend Joe who died this weekend. Joe was my dad's boss for years and he and his wife were the coolest of cool. I have known them from birth and they are my pretend "Uncle and Auntie". They are everywhere in the topographical memory map of my childhood. They spoiled me and made me feel special even through the rough awkward moments of adolescence.
I have decided to tell Finn the truth. Joe has died and I will not use euphemisms like he has passed or is sleeping as my mother offered to explain to him. I think he needs to know the truth. When I got the phone call about Joe's death, I had been crying and Finn noticed my tears. He licked a tear off my face and told me that my tears were so big because I loved Joe.

Three years old...

75 Stories

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