katehaney

08:51 pm: was the end of the school year always this active?
I vaguely remember something like a field day at the end of the year in elementary school, where we basically had PE all day (although I didn't particularly care for PE, it was relatively easy to wander off and do a more interesting game instead of some :ick: team sport). Maybe we had a picnic.

Wednesday was the Teacher Appreciation lunch at Teddy's school. I appreciate teachers! I miss my biweekly time in the classroom, so I volunteered to be one of the substitutes during the lunch (that way I didn't have to cook either - other parents cook; only over-achievers do both).

It's a lot harder being a substitute for 16 first graders than 18 (?) kindergarteners, despite having 3 volunteers this year and 2 last year.

Because the first graders go to lunch. So they had an activity, cleaned up, lined up, marched down to the cafeteria, got (or got out, for the few who brought from home) lunch, ate, then went to recess.

Oy. The mayhem at recess. Insane. Thankfully, we had our full contingent of students when they lined up after recess, because I could not keep track of them all during recess.

(And of course Teddy came dashing up to me, pointed to a child 10 feet away, and hollered "That's A! He's the big bully!" At least I know what A looks like now.)

After recess, the kids were all riled up, so one of the other parents read a story* before the kids had another activity. (This was the teacher's recommendation. I'm guessing the kids get even more riled up than usual at parent-supervised recess.)

"G! Please sit down. Sit down, G. B! You need to write the sentence. N, quiet please. B, have you written the pictionary sentence? G, on your chair please. S, we're writing sentences now. Please write your sentence. N, please let M write her own sentence. B, we're not working on the plates now. Please write your sentence. G, sit. B, write. N, quiet. B, write. S, write. Teddy, why are you crying?"

Teddy cries a lot when I'm in school. My presence at library/technology every week is insufficiently exciting to merit tears, but he has trouble containing himself when I'm in the classroom.

"S2, you need to finish your sentence. J, please start drawing the sentence. What do you think you should draw? I think that's a great idea. B, you need to do your own drawing please. G, please sit down on your bottom. That's a wonderful drawing, H, please pick a book and sit down to read. K, please finish writing your sentence. Great job on your sentence, S3, now you can draw it."

And on and on and on. For whole... minutes. I do not know how teachers do it 5 hours a day. (And one of the parents in the room was The Trouble Kid's Dad [he normally has a dedicated teacher's aide], so all the mayhem was not TTK; it was the endless activity of all the other kids.)

When the teacher's aide came in, she said "They're so quiet! This is great!"

Holy crap. I'd hate to see what not great looks like.

Tomorrow is Field Day. I did not volunteer. Because there are limits. But I am attending, which means trudging from one activity to another, eating a picnic lunch (if I ever did love picnics, I don't any more), and drying Teddy's inevitable tears.


* I'm proud of myself for not pouting out loud. I miss reading stories. :sigh:

08:21 pm: Life List #1: Places to Travel
I want 10, which means I have to scope it just right... though I figure I can offload some into the Things to See category, right. I'm not including places I've already been and want to go again.

So, in no particular order:
1. Alaska
2. Greece
3. Kenya
4. New Zealand
5. Tibet
6. Hawai'i
7. Costa Rica
8. Argentina
9. Japan
10. St. Helena

In truth, I want to travel just about everywhere, though deserts and swamps hold less appeal than mountains and beaches. Also, third-world accommodations don't hold much appeal. I like safe water and recognizable food, too. So I'm a spoiled American brat. :shrug:

I figure all of these are reasonable, except maybe Tibet and (especially) St. Helena, which would be difficult. However, St. Helena's probably #1 on Peter's list, which adds to the likelihood that I'll get there someday.

Tags: life list, travel

09:00 am: Books
I re-read Jude Deveraux’ Forever and Always series because I needed some fluff*. I’ve only read them twice before because they’re really not her best. I like the Darcie character – less because of her psychic abilities or her innocence or her goodness and more because she’s sarcastic and eats like a pig and stays teeny tiny. In any case, these will remain on a very slow rotation.

Gene Doucette’s Hellenic Immortal is a worthy sequel to his excellent Immortal, though I’m not convinced the Silenus-Dionysos dialogues were necessary (I’m quite certain the all-caps font wasn’t). I wrote, very briefly about Immortal here. Both books are excellent, different from anything else I’ve read, and generally ripping good yarns.

(An aside: Doucette’s publisher is marketing Hellenic Immortal to piggy-back the enormous success of 50 Shades of Gray. I have no interest in that book, as the writing is supposedly wretched, though I may succumb to curiosity at the library. Everything I’ve read and that Doucette has said indicates they’re completely different. Most important, the Immortal books are well written.)

Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot has received somewhat mixed reviews, but I liked it very much. It has 3 protagonists, all students at Brown, all very bright and interesting, all screwed up in various ways. It’s deftly woven together, well paced, and altogether quite good. I’ll have to go back and read his other books now.

Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto is his best book since Complications (which just leaves Better, which I didn’t like as much). I don’t mean to damn with faint praise. I loved Complications and I loved The Checklist Manifesto (I merely liked Better very much – pfft). It includes lots of good stories of where checklists have or could have helped in all kinds of situations (flight safety, surgery, construction projects, etc.). It shifted my thinking on some work stuff in a checklist direction, which I think will prove extremely effective.

Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a fascinating account (of an anthropological sort) of the care surrounding a Hmong refugee with severe epilepsy. Family and medical personnel all tried to do their best for the child, and ended up clashing in horrible, enormously unproductive ways. It’s not entirely clear how much healthier the child might have been if one side or the other had “won,” though the mix was definitely awful.

Stephen Fry's Moab Is My Washpot is the first installment of his memoirs, with the focus on how dirty and bad he was (thus the title). He’s less scattered in this one than the Fry Chronicles, though perhaps I’d’ve enjoyed the latter more if I’d read the books in proper order (although I did like them both, very much). Fry’s led a fascinating life, he writes well, and his books are definitely worth a read.

Faye Kellerman’s Gun Games has more Gabriel Donatti, whom I like very much. With the other Lazarus-Decker children leaving the nest, Donatti extends the interesting parental bits in Kellerman’s narrative (which I’ve often found as interesting as the mysteries themselves). Cindy has given birth, so the next generation may fill the gaps in later books.

Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) is quite wonderful. It’s the best of the blogs-turned-books I’ve read, probably because it was started before the blog and because Jenny deliberately kept some stories back specifically for the book. As a long-time lurker on her site, I’m (unjustifiably) proud of its NYT Bestseller status. It’s often heart-warming and almost always very, very funny. Definitely recommend.

I’m a sucker for holiday romances, so was delighted to discover that Linda Lael Miller wrote A Creed Country Christmas. This trifle will probably not stay in my annual rotation. I also read the Garrett and Austin editions in the McKettricks of Texas set, both of which were fine. Sadly, it turns out that Miller is NOT Kathleen Gilles Seidel, author of Again (which I finally found, re-read, still like), with whom I’d confused her. Miller is the far more prolific of the two writers, but is not as good as Seidel. More on Seidel below.

Glyn Moody’s Rebel Code was fascinating at first, but I found I had diminishing interest; I haven’t yet finished it and may never. It’s a very detailed account of how Linux was (and is) written, much of which is of course important to other open-source projects and a precursor in some ways to read-write web. But there’s apparently only so much detail of coding history that I can tolerate, unless it's classic or newer humor on the subject.

Nora Roberts’ The Last Boyfriend is the next in the Inn Boonsboro trilogy. Light, quick, fun.

I just got John Sanford's Stolen Prey yesterday and stayed awake a wee bit late so that I could finish it. Crisp, fast-paced storytelling, some interesting characters, and no mystery at all, which is fine by me. The best part is seeing the various narratives pull together. Good stuff.

Having finally correctly identified Kathleen Gilles Seidel, I got her After All These Years, which is a Harlequin written almost 30 years ago. It’s certainly better than most Harlequins I’ve read, with reasonably complex characters and something of a plot. It’s also about twice as long as current Harlequins (without undue padding), which is a bonus.

Anne Tyler’s The Beginner’s Goodbye is a lovely story about a man whose dead wife continues to make appearances in his life. Well, that’s what the blurb says, but the wife’s reappearances are a tiny part of a quiet, compelling story about relationships. I highly recommend this gentle and charming book.

Wil Wheaton’s Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot are both excellent. I don’t really know Wheaton’s acting. I haven’t seen Stand by Me or ST:NG or any of the more recent things he’s been in. I have seen Tabletop, his web-based series about gaming; despite never having played the games he features, I have really enjoyed the show. And I love his blog. Most of all, he seems like a genuinely nice person (not least because of his good sportsmanship in collating papers for Jenny Lawson). My absolute favorite thing about Wheaton is the Wheaton Rule: Don’t Be a Dick. And he’s a good and entertaining writer, too.


* It may not be obvious from the alphabetical listing (or to people who only read books that are good for them), but I’ve read a lot of really good books recently. Good books tire me more, so I tend to intersperse trashy magazines and other light fare.

Tags: books

09:44 am: Life Lists
I've been meaning to do a life list for a while - I love Mighty Girl's and Chookooloonks, and generally thought it would be sorta fun.

Then I tried to do it. Yikes.

So I figured I might try breaking it down to smaller tasks - 10 lists of 10 different kinds of things. I thought of nine:

- Places to travel
- Activities to do
- Foods to taste
- Skills to learn
- Things to smell
- Music to hear
- Events to attend
- Books to read
- Things to see

I can easily list more than 10 places to travel or books to read, and am not coming up with any activities, but I suspect that's a temporary block. And since it's my list, I can put 1 of 1 thing and 20 of another, but it's just a framework.

What do you think? And what should be the 10th list?

Tags: life list

08:55 am: Blogiversary #7
Geez, it's been a while, eh?

I wish I had something profound to say on this auspicious occasion; alas, I do not. My life has changed completely in the last 7 years, mostly for the better. I love that wonderful kid more all the time and remain so very grateful to family and friends for your support.

Thanks for joining me.

08:36 am: Basking in reflected glory
Teddy wrote* an entry in the GeekMom/ThinkGeek contest and got an honorable mention. He's very proud of himself, though he told me his quick share at school today would be that we didn't go to a movie yesterday.

:sigh:

He seems a bit off since Peter left; last night, he told me "I'm very fragile today," sniffled, and snuggled some more.

Damn, I love that kid.

I have found myself quite short-tempered at the end of the day most days, and I'm fighting like hell not to express it. I would never do anything deliberately to hurt him, but I've been spilling over... yelling and cussing and being crabby. He asked me yesterday if I could please stop being crabby. I promised I would try and I am, I'm really trying. But the best parent I can be is not very good sometimes.

We had a discussion yesterday about how much time we spend together. He was scolding me for not spending enough time with him, so we counted up the hours - 6-7 a day during the week.

"That's not nearly enough!" he said. I told him that's a lot more than lots of parents get, and I feel very lucky that I get to work at home because I get to be with him more I would if I had to go to an office. I felt like an idiot saying it, because of course I'd like to spend more time with him. Still, he seemed comforted.

I like to think of it as benchmarking rather than peer pressure.


* I did the typing after he got frustrated, but he wrote it.

07:22 pm: Out of our league
Teddy saw (parts of) his first major-league baseball game yesterday, with mixed results.

He declared it "totally boring" within 2 minutes of sitting down. 2 minutes. But I made him sit through 5 innings, because I'm mean. And cheap (while I'll happily pay for new experiences for my kid, I'm not paying that much for 2 minutes or, more important, for his not even trying to find something fun about it).

He ultimately said that he really enjoyed watching the pitchers and the batters, liked the food*, and loved the music (So good! So good! So good!), and hated the noise. The cheering really upset him (it does get mighty loud mighty fast).

Sadly, there were few occasions for cheering, though we were there for the Red Sox' only two runs.

Despite the allure of the big green monster, the fun of doing the wave, and the magnitude of his caloric intake, he doesn't want to go back. I'm glad he had the experience, and glad I was able to share it (though I was sorely tempted to ask my beloved nephew to take him, that seemed horribly, horribly unfair to him, given Teddy's likely Issues).

So we're back to minor league for a few more years. The Wild Cats are fun, and cheap, and close. :shrug:

* * * * *

In the meantime, he won't be getting a leopard gecko this week. He's been pestering for a pet for a looong time. He knows we won't get a kitten or a puppy until next year (I need a purebred something because of allergies, and they're expensive, and I'm not bloody well charging a pet). We were going to get a fish, but I read all this stuff that said you need a 10-gallon tank at a minimum (! really? what happened to bitty goldfish bowls?). Peter doesn't like rodents (and I'm probably allergic anyway), but a friend recommended a gecko.

So we were going to get a gecko this week if he behaved.

Maybe next week.


* We split a hotdog; he had cotton candy and lemonade. To my great disappointment, no one was selling Sports Bars. WTH?? That's the best part of the game!

08:21 am: My dream had a typo
I was frantic, storing towers of analgesics.

It wasn't until I woke up that I made the connection: silos of ibuprofen are not the same as kilos of illegal drugs.

This would appear to be proof that I dream in words more than sounds.

Also? I'm not a drug dealer.

07:03 pm: Dobrou Noc, Babi
Peter's Grandmother died. Peter was very close to her when he was growing up; he even lived with her for a while. She was 93, so her death wasn't exactly unexpected. She was already on the decline by the time I met her, and was non compos mentis for the past couple of years. She didn't recognize Peter on his last visit. But still, I know it's hard for him.

He's going to the Czech Republic for the funeral and I'm going to be parenting solo for the duration. Thank goodness I work at home and have flexible hours... and Teddy's good at keeping himself occupied (and quiet). Nonetheless, I'll avoid late-afternoon meetings as much as possible.

I'm hoping I'll have more time for blogging, but we shall see.

08:31 pm: "I'm afraid of dying"
"I'm afraid I won't be heard. There won't be any more me."

This is what Teddy wakes up thinking about? I thought I had another few years before I had to deal with teenage angst. And I'm a bit baffled as to what to do about it.

I assured him that he had a long time before he needed to worry about his death (and, after some probing, about mine or Peter's). I asked him if he believed in an afterlife or in reincarnation, and he said sadly that he doesn't. He said he wished he believed in the [Greek] Gods, because maybe if he did something really good, they'd grant him a wish and he would wish for immortality for himself and his family.

I told him that I believed that people live on after death in what they do and what they write and in other people's thoughts, which he says he's going to think about.

Oy.