Monthly Archives: October 2007

So old!

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  blast from the past 
  Originally uploaded by Amity Beane

So, this picture was taken by my friend Amity from Amity’s photostream, whom I’ve known for a long time. (as you can see.) Power of the internet and all, we lost touch until she clicked through a link on whylime’s blogroll and realized that gretchen says was Gretchen S., from just up the road a piece.

It’s a fitting end to the week, really, where I’ve been Feeling My Age. I got contacts to try out — I used to wear them, but haven’t been fitted in ages — and the left one is great and the right one needs tweaking. I traded some pirated Jim Henson goodness for Mary Kay anti-aging stuff. I got a haircut. I refreshed my makeup stash. (Refined, really — concealer, tinted moisturizer, mascara) All this, with a cold. Feh.

So to have, at the end of the week, this grainy image of Me, Fifteen Years Ago (HOLY EFFING SHIT, THAT MATH IS RIGHT!) show up, is really fitting. Because, while my skin feels old and gray, life is so much better now. Um, let’s see, #50 was my first boyfriend. #11 was a Really Good Friend, that in retrospect, I think maybe he actually liked me? We talked on the phone for HOURS at night and had the same clock radio. The one with the ball had, just a month or two before this picture, gotten so drunk at lunch that he puked and shit himself all over the library (big deal, it was the only room with carpet in the building) and since it was sports physical day, one of the doctors treated him on site. But he was the star, so he didn’t get too punished. I mean, he’s holding the ball in the picture! #25 was Amy’s boyfriend. Oh, and the girls in front — the one on the far left has two kids now, I wrote about her on dland, I think, life hasn’t been good to her, then me, Amity, Tonya has a few kids last I heard, again, life not too good, and the last one is actually married to #50 now, but it was during this time that she was confiding in me on the bus trips about her unplanned (and unkept) pregnancy. (Not by #50.)

God. We all look so YOUNG.

ETA: #4 and #34 are both in jail, or were, for drug-related offenses. #34, named, no lie, not a nickname, Butch, was the biggest homophobe in all the land of wood. His brother was almost certainly gay, he married some girl, last I knew, because I think in his family, it was Not Okay to Be Gay. (Man, I KNOW that.) #15 is a lawyer. #40’s sister married #21 (incontinent ball-holder). #10’s girlfriend (as an adult) was killed in a car accident while he was on the phone with her. Actually, I’ve seen him most recently of any of them (save Amity herself) at the airport, when I dropped my sister off for her flight home in December, he was on his way back to Miami, where he was working hard to try to get some sort of desk job with the Heat. Oh, and to be all full-circle, this is the post where Amity commented and the connection was made. (She posted on the current post, must’ve been July, but the tourney post let me know that it was legit. :))

Weekend

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My Night Away was great. Freaking GREAT.

My rental car was a brand new Camry, all big and quiet and not littered with daycare report cards or empty water bottles. I drove to Freeport, zoomed through LLB and the outlet quickly, and then headed on to a little town south of Portland, where I met up with one of my internet friends at her house. She let me charge my phone (the outlets in the car weren’t working, argh) and play puzzles with her son and make googly eyes at her daughter, and then when I left, she sent me off with cookies and milk! Very cool. Go, Internet!

I then moseyed on down to Kittery, where I picked up a dozen things, and only bought one — the Hanna outlet was cool but their outlet prices were still too steep for my blood, and I got some overalls at OshKosh — some tan ones, and some red and white striped ones. Left there and went on to my hotel in Norwood, experiencing Traffic! Which always makes me kind of happy, in the way that billboards do — "We don’t have this in Maine, so I’m definitely not At Home!"  Checked in, got online and scribbled down some directions and headed to IKEA.

Oh, IKEA, how I adore you. I had a budget of $100, and most of that went to Ingrid, but still! I got her the LATT table and chairs set (really wanted Kritter, even though it was more expensive, so it’s probably good it was out of stock) and the MALA easel, a bead path and a hand puppet (hand puppet for the trip to Texas next month), a SPOKA nightlight, some kitchen stuff — graters and cheap knives — and then I headed back to my hotel.

By this time, it was after nine, I’d eaten a bagel when I first left home, and thank god for the cookies and milk, which kept me going til I rustled up a turkey club from the hotel bar. I’d packed all these one-time use packets of hair treatments and body scrubs and I’d found a pore strip in the medicine cabinet and packed that, so I spent the evening doing all those things that I never do at home (and then, of course, worrying that they were *so* old that they would make my hair fall out or something.) I slept well — giant bed, all to myself — even if I was right next to the elevator, and I was paranoid about my alarm not going off. (Which was a good thing to worry about, as it turned out — the clock time was set backwards, so when I went to bed at 10pm, it just said "10" and the alarm was clearly set for 7am, but when I woke up at 7 to no alarm, the LCD for the clock time now had a PM indicator. So, basically, I couldn’t have known the difference unless I’d been there before noon.)

My conference was good, the drive home great — so much loud singing-along to Ani DiFranco! — and when I got to my house, Dave had kept Ingrid up past bedtime, made a fort in the living room with our dining room chairs and a blanket, and were hiding out, waiting for me. So great. Highly recommended.

On another topic entirely:

So, my ILs do a name draw for christmas gifts. Kids get tagged on to their same-sex parent, so Ingrid and I come as a set, and my niece (good niece) drew our names. She’s wonderful, but she’s a 21 year old college student, and I really, really don’t want her to have to spend money she likely doesn’t have on us. (To add to that, her boyfriend drew a father/son pair.) Is it poor etiquette to contact her, either directly or through her mom, to suggest babysitting would be a great gift? She sits for her cousins’ kids frequently, and she adores Ingrid, and honestly, I don’t NEED anything — but babysitting would be huge. I’m just not sure how much this smacks of "Get me THIS PRESENT" or if she’d appreciate the consideration to her finances. Hrm.

Also, has anyone used Avon facial products? I had this almay kit of cleanser, toner, moisturizer, that made my face break out, so I bagged it. And I was reading reviews on makeupalley.com, and one that surfaced was Avon, the Pore-Fection line, which seemed about right (tho, no SPF, which as we enter the Sunless Season — as in, it’s dark when you leave the house and dark when you return) and there are several eBay sellers that sell the kits for about 20 bucks.  But, because I am a huge dork who loves reviews, I thought I’d ask. I feel like I’m in some middle land for my face, I still get huge blackheads, but I should probably start to consider Products for Aging. As it is now, I use nothing, except for an Aveeno facewash that I unearthed in my search for trial size spa products to take to Mass.  Thoughts?

Alternate Reality Day

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Tomorrow, I get to be in an alternate reality. I’m going Away For a Night. In a New Car, Not Mine. ALONE.

I’m going to a conference on Wednesday, in a Boston suburb, and because of the way my employer handles things, I have to rent a car instead of taking my own. And because it’s so! far! away! I’m taking tomorrow to drive down. Leisurely. Stopping in places like Freeport, and Kittery, and wherever else I damn please. I’m going to go to IKEA (woohoo! Lame to be so excited about the IKEA, but there you go) and watch cable tv and take a bubble bath and sleep in a king size Cloud Nine (TM) Bed ExperienceALL BY MYSELF. No crying, lost pacis, blanket hogs, hand caught in hair, foot caught in neck readjust the toddler back to vertical OMG is it time to get up and go to work again? I’m going to get up and go to a conference where I’ll probably get a nice little plastic name pin and a free danish, and be All About My Brains for a day. I’ll drive home, maybe screeching in before bedtime, maybe not, and then I get to be a bit late on Thursday, because I have to switch rental cars.

Seriously. I keep reminding myself “I HAVE TO GO TO THE CONFERENCE.”

In 17 months, I’ve not been away from Ingrid, save for one night, when I was shuddering with fever after a shoot, and I slept fitfully in the second bed of my parents’ hotel room, where fever and parental snoring kept me from REALLY sleeping, and I had to hand-express in the shower to relieve engorgement. And even then, I was home by 8am. This is different — planned, with fun things to do on the way. Even driving alone sounds thrilling at this point, but then, I always was a road trip kind of girl. Still am, of course.

Today, I’m printing maps and confirmations and purchase orders and all of that, and daydreaming of the Hanna outlet and IKEA and debating on eating in my room, or finding someplace to eat at, both which have their appeal. Ahhhh.

MAMA!!!!

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This week, Ingrid has developed a good case of Separation Anxiety. Andy is back (YAY!) and we had lunch, and then came here for him to see Ingrid, who was once very familiar with him. She BURST into tears, and buried her face in my chest the whole time he was here. We went to the park with him, for a change of scenery, and she played, but she didn’t talk. As soon as we dropped him off, she erupted into her little language, like she’d bottled it up for the last few hours.  She was much the same for my parents, whom she sees all the time, and our trips to various stores got lots of comments like "where’s your smile?" and "Not much to say today, huh?" where she used to LOVE going into stores and trying to make out with anything with a face. On top of that, sleep woes — she’s never needed to be rocked to sleep, until this last week, and it’s almost like she can’t handle the idea of not being able to see us (well,me) and sleeping will make us go away. Hard stuff. Especially with our trip* coming up next month — I hope she’s re-righted herself by then, because my grandmother is SO anxious to meet her, and hears all these wonderful stories, and Ingrid IS a wonderful kid, but the silent scared treatment is just… not Ingrid.  Ive read that it can be linked to a developmenal leap, which kind of makes sense, as she seems younger than her peers in many ways.  I’m wondering (hoping) it’s language related, as I would love to hear more of her thoughts, or, okay, even second syllables. In that vein, here are her words so far:

Mama
Daddy
Hi
Bye bye
Hat
More
Duck
Whee (on slides)
Whoa!
Wow
Eye
Yay
Nih Nih (which I’m pretty sure is her first attempt at her own name, which is bound to be challenging thanks to the gr sound in there)
Melmo (The girl sees Sesame Street once or twice a week, on the weekends, as we’re making coffee and coming to, and goddamn if she doesn’t know that little bastard’s name already.)

Variations on the Buh sound, where the slightest difference is evident to us, but maybe not you:
Bath
Ball
Bubbles
Blueberries (sometimes ‘buh’ while gesturing wildly at the freezer, sometimes "bees")

Animal sounds:
Moo
Baa
Bowowowow
Meow
RAaaaarrr (monster)
Ah AH Ah (uhh, this is when we count, like the Count on Sesame Street, is he an animal?)

She signs more and all done, and used to sign for nurse, but weaned. I wish daycare worked with sign, but they don’t, and I’m surprised at what she HAS picked up. 

She has also figured out where belly, eye, ear, nose, and mouth are on herself and others, and she does the actions for pat-a-cake (though still prefers to steer the adult’s hands on that one). She likes to chase and be chased, and has started a new thing where she sort of revs up, ‘running in place’ before launching off into her chosen direction.  She’s really, really fun. I hope that comes through next month.

*Trip — oh god. We worked so hard to find flights that would be toddler friendly-ish, but we’re flying from Portland, 2 hrs away, and the flight there, we have one connection and arrive in Austin around 11pm, and then have to drive to Grandma’s neighborhood** so that will be a late night. Return flight was initially leaving at 1030 am, one layover, arriving to Portland at around 5 pm. That was just changed by the airline to include TWO layovers (ATL & CVG) and we don’t get in til 10. Then drive home 2 hours. And go to work the next day. Oh, suckage.

**After several attempts at finding a rental through a real estate management company, we FINALLY got a place and don’t have to stay at a hotel a good 20 minutes away from Grandma. Instead, we are across the green from her, in a condo, with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a PING PONG TABLE in the master suite. Woot! And a pool. I’m hoping the pool is still open then, for toddler amusements. I’m looking forward to being able to walk a few hundred yards to get to Grandma’s, and I think she is too. We’ve usually stayed with them, but no one wanted to stress out my grandparents by overrunning their place, which is the only thing an 18 month old does, really.