You Can Call Me "Deep and Complex"

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.

The weird thing is that I loved this book when I really was young and childish--in fact, as a ten or eleven-year-old child. I really felt for those rabbits when their field got destroyed. I have never read it again.

Why don't I get to be a cooler book?

On the other hand I "may be" one of the greatest people of all time. Time will tell, I guess.

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at the Blue Pyramid.

Update

Wow, judging from the nonscientific sample size of two of my friends, glasses as a kid are no fun! Oh well...it's not like we had a choice. We picked out her glasses yesterday and we like them. I guess I am trying to be super positive about having glasses (although not in an annoying way, just when she brings it up, telling her how cute and smart she looks in them, and how it will help her eyes get better) so she will wear them. When we get them in a week, I'll try to post some pics. She can hate the pictures later!

In other news, we are going to Louisiana tomorrow so Justin can work on his mom's house for the rest of the week. I am a little unenthused (if that's a word) about going. I haven't been there since the onset of the postpartum depression, so I guess I'm associating my MIL's house with Bad Feelings. There are other issues--their family is much more dysfunctional than it appeared when I married him--so this is definitely more of an obligation than a vacation. (Hey, that rhymed.) Even for Justin, which is sad, really. Lest you think I am being a jerk, I honestly believe the passive-aggressive weirdness is on their side. I am capable of being nice and cheerful while being there. Now just let me repeat that seven hundred times and I should be fine.

Plus, I am borrowing my brother's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They are used to me having my nose in a book, so no one will mind if I am reading a lot.

Girls Who Wear Glasses

Yesterday I took Miss Pink to the opthamologist because she had been squinting for quite a while. I’d taken her to her doctor a few months ago and she passed the vision test they do. However, the doctor saw a small scratch on her cornea, so they put a patch on her eye. That child screamed like a possessed banshee and it took three of us to hold her down. Fun fun fun.The next day we returned and they said the patch worked. Yay, problem solved, right? For a month or so everything seemed fine. Then she started squinting again. More unnerving, a few times her right eye turned in toward the center so it looked like she was crossing her eyes on purpose, but she wasn’t.

My parents had been worried about the squinting (I think my mom was fearing a brain tumor; she always jumps to the worst possible conclusion) but it wasn’t until Miss P’s eyes crossed that I got a referral to the opthamologist (I’m such a slacker mom. But really it was only a week and a half or so). I was hoping it was something simple, like…needing glasses. I resolutely refused to believe we’d need a neurology referral. Unlike my mom, I try base my fears on evidence, and Miss P wasn’t having blackouts or headaches or anything like that. Just squinting. Of course, bad news does happen, and I’m thankful it was just something easily correctable.

Miss Pink will now sport some spectacles. Guess which color she wants her glasses to be?

I don’t remember the technical term, but basically she’s farsighted. That’s why she squinted more at the TV than when coloring or reading. (She wouldn’t tell me when her vision was blurry because she thought she’d have to have another eye patch—OH THE HORROR!) The eye was turning inward to try to focus more. If left untreated, it would get worse, but there’s a good chance that she will outgrow it after wearing the glasses for a while.

Best of all, she doesn’t mind at all. She’s totally cool with it (best part of being four, I guess). I started noticing little girls with glasses yesterday, including the ones in the doctor’s office, and their glasses were cute and tiny, not at all those ugly eighties plastic frames that always looked too big on a kid’s face. And guess what color all of the girls had picked?

Good thing it looks like there will be plenty of options to choose from.

Parental Supervision Needed Here Stat

The other day I answered the door and the young female salesperson said, “Is your mom or dad home?”

I gotta tell you, that made my day. Since I just turned 32.

She wasn’t trying to flatter me, either—she was embarrassed when I stepped outside and said, “Nope, I’m it.”

“Oh—well—you look young,” she said. (She was probably in her mid-twenties.)

“Thank you,” I said, and I meant it, by George! My mom always said the day would come when I’d be thankful that I was petite and baby-faced. At the time all I cared about was that the Older Boys didn’t want to date me because I looked like I was twelve.

Apparently I still do. (Of course all the twelve-year-olds are trying to look twenty-three, but I’ll take that, too.) It must have been my ego that made me listen to her sales pitch without claiming a baby-related emergency, but when she came back the next day, my husband told her we weren’t interested.

He was probably just mad that she didn’t think he was a teenager.

Reviews and Other Book Notes

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Yesterday I had a nap, so I have no complaints.

I have a book review up here. I recommend both of these books.

I forgot to tell everyone I had a blog post up Friday here. It's about how to find time to read when you don't have time to read (only slightly exaggerated for comic effect.) I really have locked myself in the bathroom to finish a chapter!

Thanks to those who commented on my post about Harry Potter. After my defense of the HP books, I haven't read (or even ordered) the book. I'll wait till it's in the library. I don't have the funds to buy many books. I only buy the ones I've read and love. It's like a marriage (does that make me a polygamist?) I'll probably buy the whole HP set at some point for my kids to enjoy when they get older.

That's all. I'll post again when I have something to say other than book stuff.

Retro

Recently I was thinking: if I didn't live in these particular interesting times (there's a reason that's an old Chinese curse, by the way), when would I want to be alive? Actually, I think I answered myself here: I'd want to live as a young person during World War II. It was a time for genuine heroism on the battlelines and the home front. A time when the country and half the world was united to stop a madman bent on murdering innocent people. I think those who call it "the greatest generation" have a point (although now that I think of it, the greatest American generation is probably the one that produced the Founding Fathers. Those were some real heroes, there.)


So assume I was a war bride, caught up in the danger and romance of a World War, and after the war my husband comes home and we have 2 kids and a house with a white picket fence and I'm a housewife, how would my life in the 1950s differ from being a stay-at-home-mom (notice how the terminology has changed) in 2007?

PROS AND CONS OF BEING A 1950s HOUSEWIFE

PRO: I'm already a housewife; no feminist qualms of abandoning a career

CON: But I'm quite fond of being able to express my ideas without being told not to "worry my pretty little head something that's a man's job."

PRO: I like to cook, so homecooked dinners wouldn't be a problem (I could even live without a microwave--gasp!)

CON: But I'm not fond of tuna casserole, Jell-O salad with miniature marshmallows in it, and milk with dinner.

PRO: The music. All that great 30's and 40's swing, the jazz singers, and the birth of rock 'n' roll.

CON: But I'd be too "square" to enjoy Elvis and the Beatles. I'd probably be like my grandmother when my mom was watching Elvis on Ed Sullivan: "Turn that nasty mess off!" By being born later, I get to enjoy their genius.

PRO: The fashion could be really great. The New Look by Christian Dior ; anything worn by Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.

CON: Not too crazy about the hairstyles.

PRO: Movie stars weren't as stick-skinny as they are today. Exhibit A: Marilyn Monroe.

CON: Can't really think of a con. I think Hollywood should stop making women hate their bodies.

CON: Husbands not expected to help take care of children.

PRO: None. That is just NOT RIGHT. Much progress has been made in this area.

PRO: A simpler, more innocent time.

CON: Unfortunately, my kids would be just old enough to join the hippies in order to Find Themselves through Free Love and drugs galore.

So, you know, maybe it's all for the best that no one's invented a time machine.

Can't Fool Her

The kids piled all the pillows in the house, including the couch and chair pillows, on our bed. I was fine with that, since it let me get back in bed and lie there.

Me: This is comfy. Now we can rest.
Miss Pink: Mom, what does rest mean?
Me: You know, closing your eyes and lying down and just letting your body be still.
Miss P, suspiciously: It sounds a lot like sleeping.

JESUS SAVES...everyone who agrees with me

I've put a post about Harry Potter up here. I'm pretty sure you guys will agree with me, but I'm interested to see if there will be any dissenters. I'm okay with it if there are--you certainly don't have to read Harry Potter if you don't want to!

I asked my husband last night, "Why do people who hold a certain position think they have to convert everyone in the world to that viewpoint?"--e.g. "I think books that mention magic are Satanic, so NOBODY should read Harry Potter"--and that's not really an exaggerated example of their approach. Then a lot of them bring out the big guns and start citing the Bible. If your interpretation of the Bible is different, then you're just a godless heathen. (Think about how this comes across to non-Christians who don't decide what breakfast cereal to eat based on the Bible.)

Okay, I guess I am just a little angrier about this issue than I realized. Why can't we hold a belief and just LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE ABOUT IT ALREADY? I mean, if you're right, we'll all come to accept it anyway. If you're right, you aren't going to convert people by telling them over and over they're wrong, wrong, wrong. People don't change by criticism or rejection. People only change if they want to change. You can't make them change by arguing with them. It's true that you can love them, but people are pretty good at sensing ulterior motives and they're going to figure it out if you say you love them but you are really just waiting for them to change. To be like you. Because YOU'RE RIGHT. Because if they aren't JUST LIKE YOU and if that's okay then YOU are NOT RIGHT.

And everyone knows Jesus said that his followers need to be RIGHT at all times no matter how many people get hurt.

p.s. that rant had nothing to do with my HP post, so do go over there and comment--but only if you want to, I promise I won't judge. :-)

How to Enjoy a Birthday Weekend

Spamalot lived up to all my expectations. It was hilarious--we laughed from start to finish--and had almost all of the classic most-quoted lines (but not the one about the witch or the castle with the girls who want to be spanked, because those didn't fit the story line). There were also some new parts, like a dance by Not-Dead Fred who doesn't want to go on the cart because he "feels happy" and the Lady of the Lake (and her Laker Girls) who is quite a diva and makes a lot of fun of that singing style. And Lancelot turns out to be not quite so masculine (he ends up in a jeweled codpiece). Funny stuff.

We went to Campisi's afterward and had really good pizza and yummy tiramisu.

Then out to lunch with my parents after church on Sunday and my mom's Mud Pie, which I had specifically requested. Chocolate graham crust, coffee ice cream, hot fudge topping, whipped cream and toffee-glazed almonds.

Did I mention my actual birthday is not until Tuesday? Then I'm going to have another slice of the mud pie. A girl needs a lot of dessert to ease the pain of getting older.

I plan to go walk tonight. If I don't, I won't be able to zip up my jeans by the end of the week.

Come Visit, Y'all

Okay, I've tried to post twice in the last two days and both have gotten deleted. Which was probably a good thing since yesterday's post was pretty whiny.

But today I wanted to tell you that you can visit me at www.ninetyandnine.com/word. I'm the Friday contributor to this new blog for the month of July. The other bloggers have all posted pretty deep spiritual and/or writing questions, so I kind of did that too. Fridays don't seem to be good comment days, so we'll see. Next week I'm writing about Harry Potter; will defending witchcraft freak out the churchy people? Tune in to find out!

Also, my brother is over at Kitchen Rants. He's not really ranting right now, just talking about food. I have a post there about the best food we had in San Francisco. I'll also be writing other stuff from time to time. Lately I've been serving a lot of salads and other easy summer dishes, so I'm thinking the next post will be about what to cook when you don't want to cook.

Have a good weekend. I hope to; for my birthday, we're going to see Spamalot. Pfaff said I should make sure it is not about the contents of my email inbox. No: it's the musical version of one of my favorite comic movies of all time, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I promise to restrain myself from quoting aloud since I'm sure the other theatergoers wouldn't appreciate that.

Help, help, I'm being repressed! Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

HairlineFracture Recommends

Hey everybody! I hope you had a good weekend. Me, I'm just looking forward to the end of the swimming lessons we've been having for the past two weeks--we never knew when we woke up if we were going to be rained out that day. We have three make-up lessons this week and then no more driving 35 minutes away! Yeah! (But it was worth it, the teacher is great, and Miss Pink is swimming a little bit.)

Anyway, that wasn't the point of this post. I feel like recommending some things I like. Just like Oprah's favorite things, except I can't afford to give them to you. Sorry about that. You can feel free to ignore them, if you like. Way too many of them are food, by the way.

1) Athenos whole wheat pita chips. Dang, but these are addictive. Note to self: just because they are whole wheat does not mean you can eat the whole bag.

2) Evan Almighty. A sweet, pleasantly funny movie that probably won't appeal to people who want cerebral humor. But it has a nice message (it's about faith, about doing what you believe God wants you to do even when it seems crazy to everyone else) and I love Steve Carell and Lauren Graham. Plus it was the first movie my husband and I have been able to see in a theater for a long time, so of course I was going to like it.

3) Diana Krall's music. It's not jazz jazz. She just has the sexiest female voice since Sade, that's all. Very nice.

4) The Villa Pizza at the Northeast Mall in Hurst. The pizza was decent for mall fare--but you get a huge slice with the kids' meal, which along with the drink and bag of cookies fed both of my kids. But the surprising thing was the Spring Mix salad which came with my slice: mixed baby greens, red onion, asparagus (!), crumbled bacon, and mozzarella cheese served with Ken's Steak House balsamic vinaigrette. Really good! So although I don't suggest making a special trip, if you're there, it's worth a try. Oh, and the lunchtime service was excellent: fast and polite.

5) The kids' TV show "Peep." It comes on Discovery Kids, I think. It's funny (an egomaniacal blue duck is funny, I don't care who you are) and has subtle educational elements, mostly about scientific things like the sun or how shadows are made. And Joan Cusack is the narrator. I LOVE Joan Cusack! Since it comes on early in the morning, we TiVo this every day and Miss Pink watches it during Save Mommy's Sanity time--I mean Mr. Blue's nap time.

Okay, that's probably enough for now. We must go to swimming lessons. If it doesn't rain--and that's a big if.