Thaw before reheating.
Will: “What language do they speak in Pensacola?”
Paul: “Floridian.”
Will: “Is that like French?”
Me: “No, Will, it’s a lot like English. You won’t notice anything different.”
Paul: “Except that they have 18 verbs for ‘dining at a buffet'”.
Here in New Orleans, February was Carnival month. It’s the best and worst of life each day here, but somehow the dichotomies are heightened during Carnival. The joy coupled with the danger, the opulence and the excess, the celebrations and the hangovers.
Just Posts follow suit this month with a wide range of issues, views, expressions, and topics. There are poems, lists, rants, and realizations. Every one represents a piece to a larger puzzle, a few stitches in the tapestry of our world.
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Before the list, though, I have a favor. I have submitted an entry to win my Dream Photography Assignment. In short, my dream is to have the funds to return to impoverished areas where I have worked in the past with the goal of providing portraiture photography to the families living there and then giving them copies of the photographs. It is a gift that I always try to give, but due to time constraints, logistics of travel, print availability, and cost — one that I am rarely able to do. In the few times when I’ve brought back a photo, I have been intimately moved by the response. So much so that doing this on a larger scale remains one of my fondest dreams. While there are opportunities for photographers to pitch assignments to document poverty, photograph landscapes, and capture everyday life — there are few (if any) funding opportunities for photographers to simply give back.
I am hoping you will help me. I’m hoping you will vote and spread the word for others to do the same. The ideas with the top 20 votes will be judged by a panel — and I need your help to get in that top 20.
Please consider visiting the site and putting in a vote for my dream.
And finally. Thank you thank you thank you for reading, nominating, and writing…
Our Readers:
Our Writers:
Amy at Je Ne Regrette Rien with A Day With Fibromyalgia and This Angel Needs SOLE.
Jen at One Plus Two with En Route and Welcome to the Jungle.
Thordora at Spin Me I Pulsate with When a Man Wants to Murder a Tiger…
Bon at cribchronicles with More.
Angela at Letters from usedom with We are in the Middle of Something New, I was given a beautiful award, and Tapestry of Life.
Reya at The golden puppy with Money Changes Almost Everything, Past Present and Future, and Right or Wrong.
Julochka at Moments of Perfect Clarity with School is Cool.
Hummingbird at Hummingbird with Friend, stop a moment.
Deborah at What if with What a Wonderful World and My Dear Valentine.
Peter at The Buddha Diaries with Film Review: Wheel of Time, Another much bigger ethical conundrum, and Post-Racial.
Third story at Three Stories High with Kites on a Corner.
Elder woman at Elderwomanblog with Just One Shift.
Jarret at Creature of the shade with Stay or go.
Maggie Dammit at Violence Unsilenced with The Beginning.
Erika at Be Gay About It with Violence unsilenced.
Em at Social Justice Soapbox with Take Action: Responding to the Victorian bushfires.
Susie J with Grow and Garden and Share.
girlgriot at If you want kin, you must plan kin with How now, Juan? and To B(oycott) or not to B(oycott).
la loca at baggage carousel 4 with wrong reason, right vote.
Thailand Chani at Finding My Way Home with Jiho.
One Year to Change the World with To bin or not to bin and The Age of Noisy Altruism.
Brigitte Knudson with Education Stimulus: What America Really Needs.
Neil of Citizen of the Month with My Once A Year Jewish Rant.
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Alejna’s conversation is up and singing, too!
If you’ve nominated or written for this month, please feel free to copy the button to your website. If you want more information about Just Posts, check out the Just Posts Page.
Important business, this reading Heifer International’s newsletter.
No, really, Mom. Did you know you a flock of chicks is only $20?
Thanks, Heifer. With YOUR help, we’re just one pants-less morning away from Potty Trained.
The kids stood in the crowded elevator enjoying the bounce at each stop up to the 6th floor. “It feels funny, doesn’t it?” Paul asked them.
“It makes my penis feel funny!” Will exclaimed to half of New Orleans.*
And with that, we entered the pediatrician’s office.
What we know: there does not seem to be fluid in his ear, an access of ear wax interfering with “membrane movement,” or anything else in there that would displace enough air to make anyone concerned. He is scheduled for additional testing at Children’s on Wednesday. Damn. I was really hoping for a slam duck on this one… and now I’m thinking that he’s physically fine and instead has some larger, big picture issue. Like, he’s just being five. And five can just be weird. No drug treatment for this.
But while we’re on the subject of Will, I thought I’d share what I know will be his most favorite picture of all time. One that he posed for purposely and requested photographic capture:
Well, this one could be a close second.
Kate: “I look silly!”
Kate: “I love it!”
Our household had a big surprise a few days before Christmas, when a Wii game console suddenly showed up at our front door.
Turns out, friends of ours read that we had no plans to get one for the holidays, what with cash tight and yadda yadda. They thought about how much they loved theirs, phoned up a friend who runs a Game Store, and sent us a Wii. Just like that.
The generosity of it still has us in shock. All we really can say about it is that it goes to what we’ve known for years: people from Pittsburgh are simply GOOD PEOPLE.
We’ve been slowly trying it out over the past few weeks. It is very, very cool.
Then, yesterday, I scored a Wii Fit board for $89. And OH. MY. GOODNESS.
Here is some video of the kids… golf, yoga, and our personal favorite, Kate skiing.
The Fit is a household HIT. And inspired the following Facebook discussion by Paul:
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Paul’s Facebook Update, 6:08am, January 21: Paul can’t help idly speculating about Wii Kama Sutra now that he’s tried the Wii Fit.
A friend at 6:19am
That’s just wrong. Interesting, but wrong.
Another friend at 7:07am
Have you seen the Wii Pee? I think it is only in Japan, but damm that is funny.
Yet another at 7:25am
Sounds hilarious!
Still another at 7:38am
“Daddy, why does the Wii-mote smell like potty?”
Me at 8:49am
NOW I know what you’re spending all that time coding over…
Different friend at 11:23am
That is soooooo funny! LMAO! You know I could imagine it, I was called to a domestic dispute that turned out to be a husband and wife playing Wii Boxing!! The neighbors could see them through the window and called 911! Imagine the calls for the new Kama Sutra!
Back to Paul at 10:19pm
Well, given that iPod Touches, Wii Fit, and MySpace are all hot items right now, I have decided to seek venture capital to fund me to develop an iPod Touch application that can be used to publish your Wii Fit progress to your MySpace Page. I figure I can call it “iTouch myWii”.
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Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. My darling husband, the future creator of “iTouch myWii.”
And Ed and Brenda: THANK YOU!!!
Yesterday, I tried to do my civic duty to teach my kids about Martin Luther King Day and about the historic event of this Tuesday’s inauguration.
Or, rather, I showed Will a clip of the “I Have a Dream” speech. Response: “Mommy, it looks… old.” There was another comment, something related to the word “bored” but I’ve blocked it from memory. We’re focusing on the positive in the Cold Spaghetti household.
Later, after a short description of what will happen tomorrow, I read the kids a book about the Office of President of the United States.
Okay. What ACTUALLY happened was that I prepared to read them a book about being President. Then I waited on Kate while she went through the book herself, refused to share, and spent 2 minutes in time out after she ran away with the book shouting “WILL CAN’T SEE MY BOOK!”  Eventually we all sat down together to read it.
Little Betty Lou from Sesame Street sees the Big Black Car of the President go by and she dreams about all the things she would do if she were President.
Like give speeches to the United Nations.
And fly in Air Force One.
And work in the Oval Office.
And attend the Easter Egg Rolling on the White House Lawn.
And have a penis.
You think I’m joking, but I’m pretty sure I added that last part in, just to make sure they were listening. And also because we’re all about honesty in this household.
But you know, maybe I’m wrong. Granted, I’ve felt strongly that we would see an African American man as President before we’d see a woman in the same role. But it happened so soon, and for a man who is approaching the Presidency from a rational perspective. It’s wonderful and overwhelming and unbelievable. So unbelievable that everyone seems to believe that this IS a point of change, and that tomorrow, anything is possible.
I wanted my kids to understand that.
Instead, Will asks, “Mommy, is tomorrow a school day?”
“Yes, it is. But when you come home, we’ll watch the new President speak on the computer.”
“Okay. But can we play Lego Star Wars first?”
Will: “Mommy, can we just skip your birthday and go to mine because I want to be 6 and I want you to NEVER BE ANY OLDER THAN RIGHT NOW.”
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Kate: (on the actual birthday) “It’s CHRISTMAS! Yeah, Santa!”
Kate: (on day after birthday) “It’s your birthday, Mommy! Santa’s coming!”
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Me: (to Paul) “It’s my birthday, are you going to pamper me today?”
Paul: “Sure. But I don’t think we have any in your size.”
I’m 21 today!! (In hex.) Good thing, too, because I recently heard this exchange among my Schweitzer group:
“What did he look like?”
“Oh, you know… tall, brown hair, middle age… like, in his late 20s/early 30s.”
Phew! Good to know hex puts me squarely in the early age category! Although I am young and so thrilled to finally be able to buy booze, I am going for a low-key celebration. So for all you peeps ready to take me out drinking on the town, here are some things I won’t be doing today, on my birthday:
— I will not be putting gifts in my children’s shoes in celebration of Epiphany (although the cat may leave one in mine.)
— I will not see the parade in the French Quarter to kick off the start of Carnival Season.
— I will not be taken out to a Fancy Dinner (although I may serve a mediocre one to my family. Readers are encouraged to send easy recipes to this culinary-challenged woman, with the understanding that I can barely boil water.)
— I will not be rudely awoken from an afternoon nap.
— I will not be lavished seduced with presents (although I will probably be given a hidden gift from my mother-in-law and sung to by my parents).
— Our household will not relocate to Disney-developed Celebration, Florida, even though Casa Latino, one of the country’s largest Hispanic and minority owned real estate offices, is moving there from New England (how strange is that?!)
— I will not be bothered if I decide to eat frozen cookie dough in lieu of not having Fancy Dinner.
— It will not be judged careless if I decide to catch up on random websites and enjoy things like these portraits, these lights, these light cords, these knitted curiosities, and these paper illustrations.
— No one will bother me if I want to play Momma-razzi all night with my camera. Smile, kids!
Thank you for all the birthday well-wishes!
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UPDATE: A big whoops for forgetting the hat tip to laloca, for pointing out the knitting curiosities. I’d say that they made my day, but considering how many people I’ve shown them to and how it’s still up in my browser, I think making my week is much more appropriate. I guess I’m in a bit of a twisted funk??
2 was more difficult than 1. 3 was more difficult than 2. 4 was difficult, but a lot like 3, so we got used to handling it. 5? 5 may be the worst yet.
Will was really really rough today. REALLY ROUGH.
He called me a bad name and had some time to think in his room. Paul explained that he needed to write an apology letter to me and Santa. He stared one, cried tears of remorse, and turned into the perfect lovey guy… even going with Paul to The Bead Shop to make me a present with his jewelry buddy, Ms. Georgia.
Then something happened and all the magic was gone. He was back in his room.
This time, he got right to work on his apologies. He finished the first (above) and moved on to a second and then a third. Maybe he needed the time to work through some stuff.
We were beginning to think that everything was going to be okay.
Then Paul discovered that some of his thank you landed on his bed. We were dumbfounded.
When I asked Will why he wrote on the bed, huge alligator tears began to roll down his cheeks. “I don’t know,” he said, and I knew he was telling the truth. He had no idea why he did it, why the irrestible urge came over him, and what made him carry through with it. Maybe it’s similar to why I cannot resist singing along to the song “Word Up” whenever I hear it, irregardless of the situation (but really, who can resist that?) and Paul’s inability to resist making terrible puns in the most serious of conversations (“what should our wedding song be?” “how about What’ll You Do for Money, Honey?”) Some things just can’t be refused.
I didn’t know whether to laugh, be angry, or just give him a hug. I sort of felt like doing all three.
So we settled for him eating dinner. When he was done, he sassed Paul and we were back to square one. Again. Then, after bathtime and a good cry, he was back to being extra sweet. He brought me his third and final apology letter and read it over with me. He promised that he was going to work “on a good attitude.”
So he went to bed. He fell asleep in a second, which makes me think he was tired and worry that maybe that his ear isn’t healing so well?
Kate, on the other hand, was perfectly adorable all day. Running around the house calling out “Santa is coming! Santa is coming!” Then, at bed time, was so worked up that when we explained that she had to go to sleep or Santa couldn’t visit, she gave us her classic pout and declared that she “didn’t want Santa at my house.” The ying and yang of parenting: one child must always be driving the parent crazy.
Still, Santa decided to show. With some big surprises. This year, Santa was more than just Mom, too, but we’ll talk about that after the big reveal in the morning…
