kcobweb

Like so many others, I think I have to just declare amnesty, and jump straight on in, or I'll never get started, right?

Today is my chores-day, so I went grocery shopping and have started the laundry, but I still need to strip all the beds and remake them. And do some general cleaning too. My mother is coming to town, so there is slightly more cleaning pressure than usual. But the house is not-quite-as-dire as usual, so I think I'm in decent shape.

She is visiting because this week is the 6th grade musical! (omg) E has the starring female role, but it's triple-cast (so as to create more opportunities - this is what you do when you have to get 65+ kids into one show!), so we don't have to go every single night. I'm pretty excited to see the show, not gonna lie, not just to see E in her element as a shiny shiny star, but also to see all the other kids, many of whom I've known since they were 4 or 5, if not longer. *sniff* Middle school is coming, folks, fast and furious upon us. It's kind of amazing.

It's a chilly day, so I'm going to make soup - and it just occurred to me that I should get out the bread machine too. E is going over to a friend's and Dan is going out too, so I will have the house to myself this afternoon. \o/

Elena, just now [watching The Little Mermaid]: Where are Ariel's parents?
Me: Well, they just showed her father. He's looking for her.
E: But where's her mom?
Me: *eyeroll* Good question.
galagan: Yeah, we never get to find that out, do we?
E: Maybe she's at work?
galagan: Could be....
E: Yeah, she's definitely at work.

(Way to go, sweetie! Glad to see that feminist consciousness is developing already at age 4! We must be doing something right!)

Have you heard about the latest amazing Amazon fail?

( my rant to them behind the cut )

After a good dinner and dessert, Elena started angling for more. She was still hungry! We suggested she could eat more dinner then, because she'd already had dessert, and there would be no second desserts.

E: But desserts have hungry in them too!!

Hee. No, she didn't get more dessert, even for that cuteness. I still clearly remember arguing that the dessert part of my stomach still had room, even though all the other sections were filled up. I meant it, too.

WOOOO! Tim Gunn, here we come! :)

Hmmm, it sure seems like there's been a lot going on. We had a playdate yesterday that was a real downer, mostly because the other mother spent a large percentage of the visit complaining about how difficult her daughter is. Her daughter is a little overwhelming and bossy, yes, but I have not seen the horrible horrible child her mother depicts. It was very depressing. I want to like this woman (among other reasons, because our daughters are friends), but she was making it a tad difficult.

Also, galagan is back, woooooooo! Elena was starting to get X-tra whiny, but with his return, she has once again become a mostly delightful child. Whew.

She has been telling me stories. Detailed stories with great narration. She uses phrases like "she said" and "he explained" and "he moaned" and "she wailed" correctly and to great effect. She gets really into dramatic voices too. Last night's story was about her and Ariel and a boy from the library who were all mermaids and then turned into humans, and then into princesses, and they were wearing a blue dress and a yellow dress and a pink dress. (E had the pink dress, of course.) Today's story started out with Owl and Rabbit and Piglet in the Hundred Acre Wood but expanded to include all kinds of other characters and had a dramatic plane crash and dinosaurs. (The stories are dramatic, but they don't necessarily make sense yet - give her a few years to work on her plots.)

My classes for the next quarter start today! In one of my classes is someone who lives here in Williamstown! (The closest classmate I've yet encountered was in Fitchburg, I think.) We may actually get to meet face-to-face, which would be a first for me in this program. Also, one of the classes is Public Library Service, in which we examine all aspects of public libraries. One of our assignments later in the course is to read a bestselling book, preferably in a genre we might not typically choose for ourselves. Which would you pick for yourself? For me? I generally will categorically refuse to read bestsellers because I am a snob they just don't interest me. I see a couple of options there - I refuse to read horror and I'd rather not read an action thriller type. My dad said to read the Grisham, but that seems like cheating, as I have voluntarily read Grisham in the past. Maybe The Host, for the giggles? The Picoult, though I think I'd read that voluntarily too? Decisions, decisions.... (This will likely end up hinging on which book I can easily check out first from the library. But it's still fun to ponder.)

I suddenly remembered last night that I had already bought a birthday present for galagan (turns 39 on Thursday) - but couldn't remember where I'd stashed it. Whew, I just turned it up. Now I don't have to tear the whole house apart.

I haven't written much lately..... some combination of too-busy and not-enough-going-on. :) My dad is here visiting now, and I tend not to spend as much time noodling around LJ while he's around. We went to MassMOCA yesterday (the Sol Lewitt exhibit is *amazing*!!!! It makes me very happy to realize that I have 24.5 more years to visit it and look many many more times), and today went to the local history museum that tells all about trains and train tunnels...... I like that stuff (well, the local history part, anway) and so does he, but Elena was not putting up with it at ALL, unfortunately, and kept yanking on my hand. "Can we go now, mommy? can we go? can we goooooooooo?"

Dad leaves tomorrow, as does galagan who is going to Phoenix for a few days of the annual spring break / spring training trip. I'm skipping the trip this year, which is fine...... Our weather is supposed to warm up in the next few days anyway, though perhaps not to Phoenix levels. :) So Elena and I will have several days to ourselves to play. These are the last days of my spring vacation from classes too - so I'm just going to read and cook and quilt/knit/fiddle with bits of yarn and fabric and stuff......'

My third quarter of classes starts next week. One dreadful required class that is some combination of business and technical services - oh goodie! two things I know *nothing* about!!! (and really don't care to, much) - and the other about public libraries, which looks fairly decent.

At some point I need to compose a big progress report post for Elena - this is what she's doing and saying and whatnot these days. But that day is not today.

We picked my mom up yesterday in Albany, and had dinner at a random Indian restaurant in Albany (Royal India on Central Avenue - two big thumbs up!). Elena was perfectly behaved, and the waiters were so charmed by her that they gave her free dessert. (I think they don't see little kids in there much.) So she's redeemed herself - that's more what we're used to.

My mother took my car and drove down to take the train into New York to hear my sister give a recital tonight. She'll be coming back home tomorrow..... in the 5-12 inches of snow we're suddenly supposed to be getting. Oooops. Well, she lives in Montana and knows how to drive in snow. Hopefully everything will be okay.

galagan went to New Hampshire to play poker today, so I'm on my own with Elena. I sent out an email about Elena's birthday party and I paid my tuition for next quarter, but I haven't done as much homework as I'd hoped. I also had some girly bonding with Elena. All in all, a good productive day.

When I look at my recent entries, I realize that I haven't made a Real Post in like forEVAR. So I think I'll try - but it may end up being a random laundry list.

* School is good. This has been an unexpectedly easy quarter, which is lovely and nice. I am surviving Stats, and maybe even understand some of it. (I have an AWESOME prof - that helps.) And the quarter is almost done. Dang, quarters go fast...... In 3 weeks I will be 1/4 of the way through the entire degree!

* Work is good. I like my crappy, low-paying job, and that's a nice realization. And someday, the economy will shift and there will once again be job openings, and I can hope to move on from this to something bigger and more challenging. All in good time (I hope).

* Elena is about to turn 4. 4!! Yes, I know. She is roughly 8 feet tall and talks a blue streak when she gets going...... We had a playdate this morning and I can tell she really likes this particular mom, because she talks about her (as opposed to talking about her child) before they even showed up, and once they got here, she would not shut up! She kept bringing books and toys to K to show off to her.

She was poking through our DVDs last week, and pulled out The Little Mermaid. (Yes, I own it. Shut up.) She was instantly drawn to it, and has watched it every day since. (Actually - she's only allowed to watch it once a day, and we've gotten it so that she watches half of the movie per day - that's 45 minutes, and about as long as her attention span will really go.) This is her first movie obsession (in that toddler way of watching the same movie over and over and over and over) - and it's not THAT bad. She has absolutely no problems with Ursula the Sea Witch. (Let me point out that she won't watch Sesame Street anymore - though she loves it - because she's afraid of Cookie Monster, despite my repeated statements that he's a very nice monster who just gets a little excited sometimes...... But Ursula is no problem? Sheesh.)

So let's add mermaids to the obsession list of princesses and ballerinas.

She's always telling me about her sisters (usually represented by dolls). Sometimes they get time-outs for no apparent reason. It's always a little horrifying to watch her parody of parental discipline and wonder if that's how we appear to her.

She is completely madly utterly head-over-heels in love with me right now. She's so affectionate too, which means she'll launch herself at me for a full body hug and lots of kisses. If she knocks me over, so much the better. This also means, in the balancing scale which is parenting, that she's totally not into Daddy right now. This is okay - he knows how it goes, and that eventually it will shift back again. But this did lead to an amusing conversation yesterday when I left for rehearsal:

Me: I'm going - now you be nice to Daddy, okay?
Her: Okay. I won't push him.
[pause]
Me: Okay, don't yell at him either.

I need to plan a birthday party for her..... My mom will be here all next week (leading up to E's birthday), so that will be help on some fronts, and also more work entertaining the house guest, etc. etc.

* I have read so many good books in the last month or so! Some of the recent favorites: Graceling, Feed, Fires of the Faithful, Uglies (!!!!!!), the Sharing Knife series, the Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, Spiral Hunt, Rapunzel's Revenge. Mmmmm, good stuff.