book meme

thank you, lotus, for the tag! here goes:

1. One book that changed your life?
"the grapes of wrath" by john steinbeck, in that it raised the bar for any book i will ever read for the rest of my life.
2. One book you have read more than once?
the whole "harry potter" series, but "the goblet of fire" is by far my favorite.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
"where the sidewalk ends" by shel silverstein. i pored over it as a child, and i pore over it still. magic!
4. One book that made you cry?
"the red tent" by anita diamant.
5. One book that made you laugh?
i laughed at those yaya books by rebecca wells like crazy.
6. One book you wish had been written?
two, actually-- owner manuals for my specific children.
7. One book you wish had never been written?
"mein kampf" by adolf hitler
8. One book you are currently reading?
"sixpence house: lost in a town of books" by paul collins, aptly a book about bibliophiles in a town filled with bookstores.
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
anything by toni morrison

anyone who wants to be tagged... YOU'RE IT!

weekend wrap-up, a day late

*blogger was giving me trouble uploading my photos, so only the one made it on. i'll keep trying tomorrow. 9-20-06 update! still no luck.

when both kids went off to school, and i was free 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, i really didn't think i'd know what to do with myself. the exact opposite is coming true, i don't know what NOT to do with myself. it's turned into a case of finishing at least one task a day, and the list is a mile long already! thankfully i've just committed my tuesdays to the kids' school, so i will know just what to do each tuesday. the rest of the days are up for grabs.

saturday was dance day, each kid went to their respective ballet classes, and then took jazz class together. if i can figure out a way to tape & upload h's "goodbye dance" i will, because each week he comes up with some crazy slapstick routine that has all the kids howling. s really only wants to go to the thrift shop while h has his class, but hey, she's a girl after my own heart!!

my burger queen at the carolina theater

after class, t met us and we all got burger king (yay!) and they have AVATAR TOYS. avatar is BIG at our house right now. for the unenlightened, it's a cartoon on nickelodeon. anyhow, we all went up to durham where the carolina theater was showing a special screening of e.t. hosted by dee wallace, the woman who played the mom in that film. it was good to see the movie on the big screen again, although it was the cgi-enhanced 20th anniversary version. that "penis-breath" line always makes the kids cackle, doesn't it? dee wallace did a q & a session afterward, and told of many of her experiences while shooting e.t. very enlightening. did you know that she was not yet a mother when she did that film? she is frighteningly convincing in her portrayal according to me. and i'm an expert in the field of mommy. and GOD is drew barrymore cute in that movie. GEEZ! it kills me!

t stayed in durham for the screening of "cujo" that night, also hosted by ms. wallace while the kids and i went home. the new "lego star wars" video game was the hit of the evening.

sunday morning was lazy over pillsbury grands cinnamon rolls, but we decided to get in gear and head over to the nc state fairgrounds. occasionally there is an antique and collectible toy fair that's all kinds of fun for nostalgia and bargains, then you can mosey over to the ginormous flea market and find even more dirty bargains in the blinding sun. there was a greek festival also, and i was chagrined to see it so packed with humanity. i would have loved authentic greek food for dinner. instead, we went to Perkins Pancake House! where you can get Pancakes All Day Every Day!! but i got a reuben instead.

what a day. and it's only 8:26 AM.

in the darkness of the house at 6:15 this morning, i slipped in a lake of cat pee while spying the pile of cat poop in another corner. while helping my almost 8 year old son get himself dressed before school (pathetic) i accidentally scratched his foot causing him to whine at me. so i chucked the clothes at him and made him do it himself. i snuck into s's room to wake her up and she snapped... "YOU SCARED ME!"

it's quarterly tax due day, i'm stressed and need to go to the gym to pound out my tension but have no time for there is too much to do before the bus comes at 3:10.

i have bedhead and two big zits and need to send my niece her birthday gift that's already late.

can you tell i've got things on my mind?

goodbye, old friend.

dear ipod,

had it really only been two years since we first met? it seems impossible, as we had been nearly inseparable since the day you were given to me as a 31st birthday gift. you'd been with me everywhere, and through almost everything. stuck in a bag, in a pocket, even in a bra, you went with me in the car, to the gym, on a walk, around the house doing chores. together we faced beaches, terrible kids' movies, dog walks, and endless workouts.

it was too good to be true; i should have known that technology lasts only so long. i should have been prepared for this inevitable day. hope springs eternal, and i had no idea that today would be our last. our final day together, and i hardly even got to say goodbye.

i mean, when you first went on the blink a couple of weeks ago i thought it must be a glitch, that you would somehow work through with enough restoring and updating on my part. when that didn't work, i resigned myself to a trip to the "genius bar" at the apple store. teeth gritted, i made our appointment for this morning, still oblivious to the impending event.

at ten sharp, we walked, hand in hand, into the store, ready to face the truth. and the sad truth was that you no longer could play, and therefore could no longer exist. repairs were possible, but iffy, expensive and probably futile in the end. too late to apologize for the places i've shoved you, the times i've dropped you, you were taken from me for a mere 10% off a new ipod. should i have given you a proper burial? should i have erected a shrine to our time together? possibly, but it's too late now.

and i feel as though i left the store without really saying goodbye to you. i can't even look my new ipod in the face for the guilt i feel. i mean, i don't even have a photo of the two of us together! the new black and shiny ipod makes me feel a traitor, a fraud. hopefully i'll get on with my life a little better after today, but it will be a long recovery, and i'll never, ever forget you. my first, my love, my ipod.

*sniff*

goodbye.

happy 40th anniversary, mom and dad!

hi mom! hi dad!

i know, i know, i'm always a day late and a dollar short, but the kids had abducted the computer yesterday (playing toontown) and by the time they were done, i was too lazy. hey, at least the flowers arrived a day early, but only because the florist didn't deliver on sunday.

the point is, i wanted to say happy 40th anniversary to you... yesterday. thank you both for staying together and for showing us kids that marriage is not magically, mystically happy. happiness takes work and grit on the part of both spouses. this is a lesson that will serve all three of us kids throughout our lives.

you've been a great inspiration to me and my family. i'll commemorate your years together with the few historical photos i have in my archives... one from when you were dating (top), one from when you had a young family (what, 1980 or so?), and one from this past summer. i'm only sorry i don't have a wedding photo to pop in here.

i've rambled enough for the morning. still haven't had my coffee.

love, your daughter, melissa

p.s. happy labor day every (american) reader! and don't you canadians have labour day, too? or is that some other time of year?

pretenders to infamy

having all this time to myself has had the expected result of having too much time to think. you never know what topic is going to be the one dwelled upon; items bombard you throughout the day on the computer, tv, newspaper, telephone and portable mp3 player. my neurons are firing in the direction of a recent local event, which brought to mind other pertinent events, and i can't stop the cycle, so here it is! maybe typing a bit of the swirling thoughts will get them out.

two days ago a 19 year old man from hillsborough (about a half an hour north of here) wrote an email to the principal at columbine high school in colorado to inform him that the massacre that took place there would not be forgotten, and that he was personally going to make sure of it. this principal notified the nc authorities, but it was already too late. the kid had blown away his father at home, then went fully armed to orange high school, proceeded to light smokebombs to create confusion, and started firing into a crowd outside the school. amazingly, only one person was grazed by a bullet and another hurt by broken glass before the shooter was detained. this kid wanted to be linked to infamy by pretending to be a killer the likes of the columbine shooters. why?

this brings to mind john mark carr, the guy who confessed to the murder of jonbenet ramsay although it appears as though he had nothing to do with it. he had only been obsessed with the case for the past 10 years.

last year, i did a post on a muslim student who wanted to link himself to the terrorists of 9/11 by driving an suv through a crowd on the campus of the university of north carolina. instead of drawing attention to the plight of muslims worldwide, he only managed to create more fear and distrust of the millions of regular, good, honest hardworking muslims of the world. way to go, dude.

now, for the question of WHY these folks want to link themselves to infamy? copycat criminals are not a new concept, so can we partially blame the 24/7 news media sensationalizing these stories for years on end? should we partially blame the schools for not having tough enough bullying penalties? how about a generation of parents raising their children as entitled brats? or just flat-out mental illness?? maybe all of the above?? what is it?? you know, if the shooters at columbine hadn't killed themselves during the event, they could probably now market themselves as the trademarked "original school shooters" and make a billion off of lucrative book deals.

anybody have any more ideas on why a person would want or need to link themselves to infamy, only to have fifteen minutes of fame (if that)? i'm baffled.

alone

both kids got on the bus this morning to go to school. i dropped t off at the airport on his way to toronto for the weekend comic expo. he'll be there with his buddies, the blvd, for anybody reading this who may be going.

on the way back from the airport, i thought of all the places i could go, all alone, and take all the time i wanted, just looking. as i passed store after mall after strip mall, i thought that honestly i just wanted to come home and be ALONE. i have until 3:10 today, then 8 hours tomorrow to just be by myself, with my own thoughts.

being ALONE is something that has been utterly elusive to me as the mother of two, and the wife of a work-from-home husband. chaos and goings-on have been ingrained in my psyche for so long, i've forgotten the therapeutic quality of peace with oneself. there are a million things that need doing around here, especially outside. but THANK YOU ernesto for pounding us with torrential rains, granting me a temorary reprieve from yardwork. the house could use some work, too, but that can be done WITH kids and husband around. plus, my ipod is on the blink (sniff) and i can't do housework without it.

i think i'll eat yummy food, namely the QUART of delicious tomato-basil soup i picked up from nantucket cafe. maybe i'll take a nap. paint, knit, read, and pet the animals. maybe a soak in a blazing hot bathtub. perhaps play MY music REALLY LOUD in the house with no one to complain of my yodeling along. and at the end of my two selfish days, i think i'll be a whole lot better equipped to handle the rest of the world again. don't you??

tweetsie railroad

although s's birthday was over 2 months ago, her fondest wish was to go to tweetsie railroad-- a small western themed family park in the mountains. we meant to go before the trip to michigan, but torrential flooding near boone kept us home. the poor kid waited ALL THIS TIME for her birthday present! and when i found out kate was coming here for a visit, i bound her hands and feet, gagged her, and forced her into a trip to tweetsie with us. we rustled up our finest cowpoke duds, and went on a three-hour tour. well, only 2 hours and 40 minutes, but who's counting?

for some unknown reason, blogger decided to underline THAT WHOLE PARAGRAPH to make it more important.
while vacationing at kid paradise--disneyworld-- last november, s woefully lamented the fact that there was no mouse train like at tweetsie. the mouse train is a uber-creepy day-glo tunnel where animated mice "mine" for cheese while singing an inane song. even more bizarre than "it's a small world." luckily, the memory of the mouse train had tarnished-- we were only forced to ride it once. it was thrown over in favor of the throw up rides, namely, the tilt-a-whirl and the twister.
the weather in the mountains was sunny and gorgeous that day, and the views from the chair lift (and from the top of the ferris wheel) over the blue ridge mountains were lovely. we sat on big fake (yet anatomically correct) horses, pet goats and deer, ate a chili-slaw footlong hotdog, and rode on little cars. 6 hours worth.

the pinnacle of the tweetsie experience is a ride on a real live steam train, complete with skinny college boys making summer bucks playing unintelligible cowboys in a western shoot-em-up train robbery farce. whooooooo-weee! if i knew what they may have been sdaying, it might have been funny! as it stands, i really enjoyed the scenery. the best part of this ride, however, i'll share with you next. the woman sitting 2 seats ahead of us had arm hair SO Long that it was curling up about 2 inches off her arm. now, i'm not an impeccable groomer myself, but even i would have shaved this off. or at least trimmed it up. the photo doesn't do it justice. it was unbelievable.

the second first day

it seems so backward, that h should have his first day first, and s should have first day second, but that's the way it works around here. the rationale? staggered kindergarten first days. it makes sense that the teachers only have 5 or so kids in their class the first day to get them used to the whole idea of kindergarten. but now, after all this excitement, s doesn't get to go back until thursday. bummer.

she was just beaming with excitement, probably most of it over riding that pimped-out bus to school. jay queried the purpose behind the blacked out windows of the shiny new bus, and all i can think of is, you know, celebrity. the don't want the paparrazzi following them around.

anyhow, i'm officially childless for the whole rest of the day. one small leap for s, one giant leap for mommy. good thing the ^%#$ cat needs to go to the vet. it'll keep my mind off of not being a preschool parent anymore. a little bit of my identity in the past.

just a quick postscipt on the cat. james tiberius "tibby" cat. yes, i know, we're helpless geeks. he's almost 11 years old, and has been, is, and ever will be the living proof that even beautiful creatures can be E V I L. and he has just recently taken to peeing and pooping on the *only* good rug i have in the house. no, the vet visit isn't euthanasia-related, just his shots, but i'm still looking for the redeeming qualities in this cat after all these years.

magic bus

the magic bus came this morning.

the shining, brand new, air conditioned, blacked-out-window bus came for my boy. and took him away. for the WHOLE day.

yes, folks, that's right. it's that time yet again, the first day of school. more specifically, the first day of second grade for my big baby boy. it's so exciting for him; he loves school and the bus especially. he likes his new teacher and has lots of old friends in class. even his great pal and on again/ off again flame -- morgyn-- is in his class. how lucky can a kid be??

me, well, i'm not suffering the empty nest quite yet. that comes on monday when my baby girl boards that same magic bus with her big brother and goes off to the great big world of kindergarten. THEN mommy is stuck at home wondering what her kids are doing, missing them terribly.

luckily kate is visiting from michigan and she is helping me keep my mind off the empty nest syndrome by power shopping. we've been all over the area at all the malls, stores, boutiques and shops you can imagine. i'm sure we could keep ourselves busy for many more days, but i'd go broke. plus, she's leaving tomorrow-- with a heavier bag-- and we'll miss her.

huntin' dawg

we were just about to head upstairs for the night when t asked, "where's jane?"

"probably outside," i responded. "go call for her."

after calling her, he came in and said, "don't let her kiss you." and then, "i'm gonna throw up."

"what?" i wondered.

"go look on the front porch," he said, with his face buried in the collar of his shirt.

there, on the front porch, right in front of the door, lay (and still lays) a rabbit head. yes, a rabbit head, no body. again, i don't feel the need to take a photo for blogability.

and we thought border collies were herding dogs. guess this one has a dual purpose. maybe the mouse on the rug yesterday wasn't the cat after all?

hopefully the wild animals will dispose of the evidence.

GOOD doogy. GOOD doggy.

mac woods dune rides

this morning we were greeted with the sight of the lower half of a dead mouse body on the living room rug. no, i did not take a photo for the blog. it took all our strength to proclaim "GOOD kitty. GOOD kitty," while disposing of the little body, but somehow the dirty deed was accomplished. since that's the most interesting thing happening around here, i'll take you back to michigan again, to the day we went to mac woods dune rides.



this place has been at silver lake forEVER (at least since i was a kid) and although the ride is far less adventurous than i remember, it was still thrilling for the kids. they put you in these big red dune scooters then go up , down, and around the dunes by silver lake. the trip even takes you by-- and in-- lake michigan for a splash. grandma was adventurous enough to join us for the day, and even got an all new hairdo out of the experience.

i think we'll make the ride an annual summer tradition, after all, who needs a retirement fund anyway?

upstairs, downstairs

here in nc we're slogging, eyes at half mast, through the last muggy weeks of summer before the start of school. thus, not much of interest has happened, unless you count a bunch of playdates, a handful of video games, and some walks around the block with the dog. so, i'll take you back to michigan with me, a post i shoulda coulda woulda done THERE if the internet connection was faster and less fuzzy.

since i mentioned walking the hill to and from the beach so many times, i thought i'd give you some shots of the path i've pounded about a zillion times, in a few different incarnations, since i was about 6 years old. between the upper steps and the lower steps is a short hilly path with some homemade dirt steps, too.

see, where my parents now make their permanent residence was once our summer cottage, where we went to escape the suburbs of indianapolis on any available weekends or vacations. about ten years ago, after living in suburban detroit for a few years, they decided to make the cottage their home for good, and added some nice things like, oh, a furnace and such to make it more liveable. voila! a home on the big lake.

okay, i'm back!

we did somehow manage to arrive safely (if not quite mentally soundly) on monday night very late. don't know if i mentioned my wonderful pop, who flew to nc, drove us to michigan, then drove us back home, and flew back to michigan again. valiant man, and BRAVE! he is.

upon re-entry i needed to do some computer updates and the internet explorer one messed up my java and cookies or something, requiring some amount of instruction following and protocol. to me, java and cookies are a latte and a biscotti, so it was all very confusing to me. after all was said and done, i am finally finally able to post again.

i miss everyone, and look forward to getting back in the loop. more stories to follow.

fruitless efforts

been tryin' to post, guys. been tryin' to leave comments, guys.

not havin' any luck.

i'll be home tuesday, and will catch up then...

thanks for understanding!