dance 101

I am a wallflower. I stand at the back of the room, blending in with the scenery, hoping not to be noticed. I am also a hypocrite. I want to be seen, talked to, danced with so desperately that it practically sweats out of my pores. But all the hairpins fall out of my up-do and you never see me at all. You just walk around smiling at people, happy in the knowledge that you can leave me at the table-we didn't come together as a date.
I guess that was reverse karma for not going to the dance with my future husband. I hope not to make the same mistake in the future's past.
Life feels like a dance sometimes.
Choose a partner with dry palms.
Drink horrid punch you wish was spiked.
Smile like you mean it.
Go alone, leave alone.

Maybe it's just me.

Down the rabbit hole once more

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'The Jabberwocky'
-Lewis Carroll


ps-Tim Burton is reported to be working on a live-action/CGI version of A in W. for 2010. yipee!

Wisdom of the 4 year old

Abigailisms for the week:

"I can't eat the pizza without the cheese on top!"(wailing and crying commenced)

"Well I'm just not going to talk to you!"

"Maybe her poop is frozen inside her."(Referring to her younger sister during a particularly fun potty training incident)

"Barack Obama is our boss at the White House. He uses pens, not markers. They don't use markers at the White House. (I then asked her how she knew that and she said): I just know that he wouldn't. He's the boss."

and does everyone remember the words to Jingle Bells that go like this "Joy to the world, something something something. We bar-b-q'd her head! mumble, mumble, mumble, Barbie, something something, flushed her down the potty..."??
Well, I do, because my sweet Abby decided to sing it while on the way to preschool today.

When I asked her not to sing those lyrics because they weren't very nice, she proceeded to do this "de darbqued der dead! de dlushed der down da dotty..."
-See how smart she is??

Aack!

My momma don't sew!

Okay, so I'm kind of copying the last theme from a dear friend's blog post. But it has been festering inside of me and I feel all kerfloobeldy now-I WANT TO SEW!!!!!

I have a sewing machine that I bought from a lovely woman at JoAnn's last year. It has been sitting upstairs, lonely, dusty and confused for several months now. I read the instruction manual, I bought a pretty helpful book, but now I think I've done something to the tension and it's all wonky! It isn't computerized(I ain't got no money for that!), and since the last thing I sewed was an inside-out windsock in the 7th grade, I'm a little concerned for its future use! I even signed up for a class at the craft store that would go over the basics and hopefully give me some dummy-proof guidance. UNFORTUNATELY, I missed the class because I wrote the time down wrong. Urghh! So now I am afraid to take the plastic cover off and brave re threading it, retuning it and figuring out what the hell I did to the tension! Somebody save me from myself!! I want to be cool, I want to be kitsch. I want to make quirky little animals and hip, vintage aprons and snuggly pillows...
Will my dreams come true? Will I find a way to conquer my fears? Will somebody please help me figure this damn thing out?!

Tune in next time for a second exciting installment of U 2 Can Sew.

-E

Family Stone

I know having a family is a choice. But I also know that raising children and maintaining a healthy family unit is one of the most difficult jobs I have ever undertaken, and that having help along the way is the only way to thrive, not simply survive. I recently became involved in a movement here in Portland to bolster support for state-wide and national awareness of the need for paid family leave. I believe this is just one more way to support the individual needs of the child, the combined needs of the parents, and the more reaching goals of community and global support.
As I look on my own two children, my husband, and all the people who support and love us, I see our ties reaching further than our own home, our own city. Families make up our world. Please support them.

Black Bird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

-Blackbird by The Beatles

Both my girls heard this song not long out of the womb. Abigail and I would sit in the rocking chair in her nursery and I would sing to her or hum the tune and it always seemed to calm her down. Charlotte heard it as well, sitting on the couch through many a long night nursing.
I hope they will remember it when they get older. I know I will always remember those times with them.

blue bird

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-Emily Dickinson

Fambly

Here are a couple pictures of Great-Grandma Mead, Aunt Pam, and the rest you probably already know. These were taken before Christmas at our house. The first time G-G had seen Charlotte. I'm so glad she and Pam could come into Portland for this visit.

Friends don't let friends do Midol

5 Reasons I don't like Midol:

1. Midol: my-doll. how sexist is that? like only girls get dolls?!

2. Midol has a diuretic in it. and diuretics are the biggest word-cons in history. I used to think, before I had ever seen the word spelled, or heard what the definition was, they were actually things to magically help you d-i-e-t.

3. Midol has caffeine. This actually takes up two places on the list-

4. When I've got heaving cramps of doom, the last thing I want to do is to be hepped up on 5 million mg of caffeine, running around cleaning everything in sight. I want to be comatose, curled up on the couch with a blanky.

and #5. What guy/girl wants to have his or her girlfriend, wife, partner, free-basing with caffeine? because personally speaking, I can be a real bitch when I am feeling the menstrual spirit. Breaking the land-speed record for nagging and/or general rudeness is not something I want to be remembered for.

Maybe those year-round menstrual cycle blockers aren't such a bad idea after all??

love ya,
E

List #1

Today I:

1. had to make coffee twice due to the filter imploding on the first batch.

2. made my youngest daughter upset by forcing her to eat a green bean, one solitary
little green bean, even after it had turned to mush by her mulling it around in her mouth for 5 minutes.(and she still wouldn't eat the damn thing!)

3. bought a pendant and some beads to take up my long lost like of jewelry-making.

4. vowed to not eat salt and pepper kettle chips until I could control myself to only one small handful.

5. cursed the constant liquid deluge outside once or twice.

6. watched the HGTV dream home 2009 and lusted over Sonoma County, CA

7. only did one load of laundry

8. got the chance to play for a blissful hour and a half with my littlest little while daddy and sister were out.

Tomorrow's forcast: Rain, grumpy co-worker, and one headlight.

g'night!