Archive for the ‘autobioboring’ Category
[I know there are people who object to what they see as the crass commercialism of the notion of "push presents." They are welcome to their opinion. And they should feel free to post it elsewhere.]
When Henry Leo was born, Fraction gave me an engagement ring. (Sure, we’d already been married for 5 years, but we didn’t have the means for a ring when we were properly engaged. He proposed with a spoon ring that his uncle made for his father and that his father gave to him. I gave it back to him on our wedding day and he still wears it today.) The gift was at once a congratulations, a celebration, a thank you, the fulfillment of a promise and an expression of love and I treasure it light years beyond its monetary value.
He surprised me last night with another gift, the occasion for which is a celebration of the birth of our daughter… albeit, a little early. It’s an antique typewriter–a 1955 pink portable Smith Corona–and it’s just about the most perfect thing I can imagine. I could spell out for you all of the reasons, the many messages embodied by this one gift, but the sap factor of this post is already alarmingly high and besides–I’ll cry.
Anyway, it’s beautiful and wonderful and I love it and I wanted to show you.
…And now I must get back to work.
Questions for PDXers:
- We have some small appliances that have ‘given up the ghost’–two space heaters and a floor lamp. How do we dispose of these things? Can we donate them to a charity that might be able to fix them, or do we put them in the garbage…? Is there a monthly “Bulky Pickup” trash day, like there was in KC?
- I want a small jade plant for my office. Where best to buy one?
- Does anyone know of a place offhand that sells Trapp candles? I’m “craving” a Bob’s Flower Shop candle to fend off the dog fart stench in my office.
Hm. I feel like I must have at least a dozen more, but that’ll do for now. Any help appreciated!
I’m looking for a long 6 drawer dresser in a dark wood for HL and Tallulah’s room. It needs to be at least 16 inches deep in order to accommodate a changing pad.
I prefer a dark wood (but not black) and a modern aesthetic.
Leading contenders so far: http://delicious.com/kellysue/dresser
Any help/links appreciated.
Only I didn’t. Instead I dreamt (dreamed?) that Fraction and I, Henry and our friend Eleanor were on a river cruise through some unnamed European city. We’d forgotten to reserve a cabin and weren’t sure where or how we were going to sleep when we were called to meet the boat’s Captain.
Because I was an Olympic silver-medalist in “Costumed 100 Meter Freestyle (Open Water),” they were providing us with a free room. Of course, if I would participate in an exhibition swim later in the day, they’d be appreciative.
Luckily, I’d packed my Iron Man costume.
I put these lists together in a feeble attempt to communicate “my style” to Ariana when she was setting up this blog. I post them now because, uh, it’s the new year and I’m kind of dying to make lists but I don’t have the time or mental energy to craft new ones.
Nothing that follows should be considered exhaustive and I reserve the right to change my mind about anything at any moment.
Color Combinations:
Lipstick red and Robin’s Egg blue
pink and lime green
pink and tiffany blue
orange and red
Random Items:
zebra stripes
leopard prints
purses and shoes
poppies
black damask
Lois Lane
stupid-high heels
the smell of parsnips
the smell of fresh tomatoes
the word “tomato”
Modesty Blaise
baking
pretty cupcakes
Marchesa Luisa Casati
dark chocolate
navy blue stripes
Mediterranean festivals
Andy Warhol’s handwriting
Joan Didion
Anne Lamott
John Irving
Mary McCarthy’s The Company She Keeps
JD Salinger’s Nine Stories
patterns and textures
big hair, big hats
Ann-Margret
Shaun White
clean sheets
manners
crime scene photography
the history of burlesque
the suffragettes
the Women’s Movement
Anna Magnani
Marcello Mastroianni
Giulietta Masina
Dean Martin
Steve McQueen
Robert Conrad
mens suits, cut slim
Meiko Kaji
Japanese “pinky violence” films
Domino magazine (RIP)
Movies:
Lady Snowblood
Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion
All That Jazz
Amelie
The Princess Bride
The World According to Garp
The Royal Tenenbaums
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Secretary
Unbreakable
Robocop
The Iron Giant
Real Genius
Designers:
Kate Spade
Jonathan Adler
Alexander McQueen
Vera Wang
John Galliano
Artists:
Taiyo Matsumoto
the whole collection of rococo artists
John Singer Sargent
Evaline Ness
Rachel Stuart-Haas
Ashley G & Drew
Music:
Queen
AC/DC
Meiko Kaji
Mike Doughty
Soul Coughing
Johnny Cash
Lyle Lovett
FUNNY FACE soundtrack
TANK GIRL soundtrack
Helen Reddy
Tori Amos
Puffy AmiYumi
Jacques Brel
Gwen Stefani
anything I might have listened to on a swim team bus in 1978
There’s been so much going on in the last few months with the move and the pregnancy and work and holidays and, well, everything, that I’m feeling a bit more stressed at year’s end than I’d like. Not that I ever favor stress, but I love New Year’s! It’s the closest thing to that back-to-school feeling that I get as a grown up. Fresh start! New calendars! New attitude! New resolutions! New lists! New! New! New! New! New!
This is usually the time of year (Fraction calls it the ghost week) when we get to clean our offices, put gifts away, archive files and generally take time out for the reflection and accounting we don’t allow ourselves during the rest of the year.
The way this week is going so far? It ain’t gonna happen.
…Which makes it kind of a bummer that I just noticed this list of prompts in a mailer from David Allen & Co.
COMPLETING AND REMEMBERING 2009
Review the list of all completed projects
What was your biggest triumph in 2009?
What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?
What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?
What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?
What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?
What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2009?
What are you most happy about completing in 2009?
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2009?
What was the biggest risk you took in 2009?
What was the biggest surprise in 2009?
What important relationship improved the most in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have received in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have given in 2009?
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2009?
CREATING THE NEW YEAR
What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010
I realize I’m a giant nerd for liking things like this, but–NEWSFLASH!–I’m kind of a giant nerd. Anyway, maybe one of you will get some use out of it. Or maybe I’ll get back to it in January. Of 2011.
 Tallulah's First Photoshoot (October 2009) I’m pregnant. It’s a girl; we’re expecting her on or about April 21st of next year and we’re going to call her Tallulah. (Haven’t settled on a middle name yet. Once we do, I’ll probably go ahead and get a blog set up for her. Because, well… we’re those people.)
We’ve kept if off the internet up to this point for a variety of reasons, the most pressing of which being that my pregnancy with Henry was a harrowing experience–more emotionally than physically. My body handled it well, but as a result of two previous miscarriages, my mind was a nervous wreck. In addition, I lost my maternal grandmother in a brutal battle with COPD [note to loved ones: please quit smoking] during which I was lucky enough to be at her bedside. I wouldn’t trade that time with her at the end for anything, but… Anyway, I fell behind on some deadlines.
So, when we got the news about this kid, while overjoyed, I was afraid sharing that news might make editors understandably jumpy about assigning me work. And with the relocation… well, we just aren’t in a position for me to take an extended leave of absence. (Nor would I want to; I like what I do for a living and feel incredibly blessed to earn my keep this way.)
ANYWAY, work has been going swimmingly, we’ve got a fantastic childcare situation here in Portland, we’re more than half-way through the pregnancy [sans drama, knock wood!] and we’ve gone ahead and shared the news with family and clients… Our life here is pretty peaceful and my stress-level this go-round so low that, well, I feel silly keeping it a “secret” anymore.
(Of course this makes perfect sense, but I still find it amusing: during my pregnancy with Henry everything was so new and so exciting/scary. I was *obsessed* with every detail. This time… well, I’ve got a two year old and a job and I sometimes just forget I’m pregnant. Often, in fact. Then I get a swift kick in the bladder and all is recalled, but yeah… very different second time around.)
So there you go. We’re having a baby. Well… not right this minute, but come April. T-A-L-L-U-L-A-H.
Okay: back to work.
Found this on UrbanMamas.com:
Art and motherhood: A difficult combination?: “
At Wordstock last month, I sat in on several readings and discussions by writer mamas, and recently I’ve been very closely following other mothers and writers on Twitter and Facebook. I’ll admit to a fascination that’s part curiosity and part … jealousy? longing? … as I watch them juggle motherhood and their art. From a distance, it seems they’re doing it better than me.
I’ve finally gotten to the point where I believe I could finish my book proposal any day (really!) and I’m finally having a essay published in print this month. After years writing online, I’m coming into this artist-writer bit, slowly, with lots of squeaking and complaints from my family. It’s been hard, especially on those nights where my oldest has decided to go off melatonin, a gentle sleep aid we’d been using to good effect, and I must restart the process of coaching him on calming himself. For three hours.
A friend Tweeted she was locked in her bedroom this weekend, finishing a few last chapters of her book as her husband wrangled her boys. Another acquaintance, a writer dad, seems as if he’s frequently out of town on book readings and fabulous events, trading off childcare duty and glamorous writer things with his poet wife. I asked an author I admired at Wordstock how she managed to write with children — and she’s a single mother, having adopted a little girl internationally. ‘Very expensive childcare,’ she answered.
Then yesterday, I read in the Oregonian about this fabulous couple here in Portland. They’re both visual artists and she’s an accomplished writer. They’re gorgeous and cute and funny and successful. They have a three-month-old baby. I’m so jealous! (On the same page: a story about the Decemberists’ guitarist and his lovely girlfriend, Seann McKeel, who’ve started a series of concerts for children and parents to help entertain their three-year-old child. She’s also an artist. Oh!)
In my house, juggling art and motherhood don’t go that well. A two-year-old literally hangs from my arm when I’m in the middle of typing an especially inspired sentence. I go to a coffee shop to write for three hours, and when I come home, the slow cooked meal I’d begun has burnt and homework hasn’t been done — my husband was focused on the littlest and his nap, the laundry…
Are you, too, trying to combine some passion — whether it’s writing, art, a political or non-profit endeavor, or a really rewarding job — and motherhood? How have you managed? Do you sometimes feel that everyone but you is doing great? Or do you have secrets, tricks of the trade, that make it all come together?”
(Via urbanMamas.)
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