The Speech

C's assessment of Obama's speech tonight: "That was a good speeyotch, beeyotch."

Every Mom's Demise

This is it. The beginning of Kindergarten. I wish I was working this week; this has been the longest day ever. I thought it would be no big deal, because I'm used to F being gone all day in her Preschools, but this is different. This is Big Kid World. I miss my little Pumpkin-headed child.



I'm also having stress-thoughts of turning into my Mom. She would blearily kiss us goodbye in the mornings as we trudged to the bus stop. She would then plant her ass on a stool at the kitchen counter, chain-smoke, chain-drink-Tab, and play all-day Boggle with Mrs. Rohrer. I could count on them being there every day when I got home from school.

I'd dump my bag, grab a hydrogenated, preserved, sugary snack of some sort and head upstairs to watch t.v. until dinner time. Jetsons, Three's Company; After School Specials were my fav.

Anyhoodle, I have to make a few modifications, but I'm thinking with enough Coke Zero and online Boggle, I could pretty easily morph into a bored and directionless housewife. Sweet.

bye bye

Since the fambly and I are going on vacation for a week, I thought I'd leave you all with some special images:

This is a sign we put up next to our alley that cracks us up immeasurably.

Lovely, pensive Farmer.

The coolest moth ever. Ever.

My ass. Photographed by my child.

R.I.P.

Well folks, our beloved Elephant died. He got all lethargic and sickly and skinny and up and croaked on us. Christian and I took him to a forest preserve and placed him on a big branch with a ton of bugs surrounding him. It seemed appropriate. We bid our fond farewells and then I bawled my little eyes out and ran home to redecorate the cage for Penelope.
*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

Anyweedle, we leave for Cape Cod tomorrow. First we're flying into Providence. I am marching everyone around RISD so I can wallow in nostalgia and wonder about all the kids that graduate from art schools. A recurring dream that I have quite frequently is how I return to college and realize I have only a short amount of time to complete an entire body of work for my senior show. Then I spend the time checking out everyone else's work. Either that or I can't find an apartment to live in.

This may be a vacation frought with creepy parent nostalgia. Christian spent most of his summers on the cape, so I'm sure he's going to be pointing out all sorts of exciting things to us. "Look, everyone! that's where we used to eat iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice creeeeeeeeeeeeeam!" "Hey guys! I caught a fiiiiiiiiiiiiiish there once. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmy fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!" "I kiiiiiiiiiiissssssssed a giiiiiiiiirl near that beach once, honey. Honey, LOOOOOOOOOK!"

yawn.

Just kidding, C-bomb. Please don't throw me out of the plane tomorrow.

Me in 1988

I thought it would be a special treat for everyone to see a photo of me with my best friend Karen in 1988. I don't know if it will take your breath away, as it does mine every time I look at it. Feel free to inquire, via email, if you need any hair styling tips.



Oh, I won't make you suffer. Here it is: My hair is actually shaved on the sides here, and curled until it smoked, then sprayed mercilessly with aerosol hairspray. Don't forget to curl the bangs under. I think it's important to spray immediately after releasing the curl from the iron's barrel, otherwise it may not hold. And please, don't brush it after curling, or you will be left with a puffy mess, and you will be completely FUCKED. You can't start over from here without washing your hair again. You cannot just wet it down and dry it and re-curl, because the hairspray residue will burn. Washing twice actually usually backfires as well, because if your hair is too squeaky clean, it will just be staticky and stupid. You've got one chance, so don't screw it up.

Oh, lawdy. It's been soooo long since my last post. SO much has happened - in fact here's a recent pic of me now:



And here's little F now. She's grown into such a lovely young woman:



Sometimes when she gets angry, she scares me.


I freelanced as a designer of magical environments at the photo studio for the past month. It was lovely to make some money and be all busy and feel like I was not a suburban stay at home mom.

How fun it is to converse with creative people, over the age of 24, who aren't child-obsessed.

Here are some of the topics I covered with my coworkers:

1. China's current role in Africa

2. Bras and how hard it is to find good ones

3. Beverages that lend themselves to addiction

4. Stray animals we love

5. The Monroe, WI Cheese Days Festival. Be sure to click on the link to the Cheese Days song.

6. Pubic hair

7. Different ways in which feet slowly break down


Next week, F and I get the house all cleaned up and we start to pack some beach goods for vacation! wheeeeeeeeeeeeee

By the way, here's a video I can't get enough of, and I think you may feel the same way. Soundtrack courtesy of Vampire Weekend: