Tonight was completely uneventful, quiet, and wonderful! I left work this afternoon after having gotten the best of the Java problem I've been struggling with for a couple of weeks, so I left work feeling good about life. I made it all the way home without having to look at any murdered deer piled on the back of an asshole redneck chickenfucker's truck. In November in WI, that's pretty lucky.

My mom, Luce, and I stopped by for a brief visit with a friend, who made a beautiful purse for L. Then back home to make dinner and take care of critter chores. I worked hard and fairly efficiently and had all of my chores and dinner cleanup done by 6:30. That left L and I with time to work on sewing our owls. Lila decided that she wanted to play 'catch the thread', as I was trying to sew. That made it quite challenging.

We then moved on to a game of chess. I did not want to play chess, but she did. We're at a tough stage with the chess. She is at a point where she needs to start working on her strategy and planning ahead, in addition to remembering to keep an eye on what her opponent is up to. My usual non-competitive game playing doesn't work well with chess, and it doesn't serve her well. I know that if I want her to be a good player (or even just a better player), I have to step up the game and not just let her win, or let it end in a draw. I do not like to beat her at all. At anything. It makes me feel shitty and it's not fun. I took it less easy on her tonight, (though I still gave her hints and let her take one move back) because I want her to learn and improve. I really wish someone else could take over the chess, though. It's important that she learn to be a respectable and a strategic player, so I will stick with it...at least until I can find and recruit a teacher for her who doesn't mind winning!


Lila and Charlie snoozed on the couch near us, and Basil had a blast playing in the box that their cat food came in.Last but certainly not least important--We watched Monty Python's Holy Grail for our family movie on Sunday night. It's the first time L has seen any M.P. She liked it (yay, the family tradition continues!), so we think this year that we'll take both girls to Spamalot. We didn't want to get tickets and take her only to find she didn't really like the humor, but she's seen it advertised and been asking to go. Dej has been wanting to see it since we went a few years ago and loved it. We're excited to go as a family for the first time!

Breathing

We spent Saturday's date night at the Coronado in Rockford again! I think that's the first time we've ever attended the same venue for two dates in a row. This time it was for the RSO's performance of Carmina Burana. We continue to be impressed by the quality of their performances.

Other than date night and L's dance class on Sunday, we had a lot of family time at home over the weekend. It was very nice and very needed, as I feel like we haven't had enough of that lately. After Sunday's class, L and I did some sewing--we're making stuffed owls, and we each got our owls eyes sewn on. Lila enjoyed a little snooze in the laundry basket (til I woke her with the flash), and M enjoyed a snooze on the couch (the flash didn't bother him).

November is an icky month for me (hunting, thanksgiving). It's an inescapable travesty, and I spend most of the month vacillating between despair and rage. It's a really good month to hide from the holocaust in my house, with my family. My motto for the month is, "The only good hunter is a dead hunter." I need a bumper sticker.

Luciana's Dance

Kalaanjali Annual Day

We made it through the performance. It went well but was a very long day! She told me she wasn't nervous backstage at all, but when she got out on the stage, and looked down at all the people, she didn't feel like her legs would hold her up. I asked her how she felt about performing; if it was something she could see herself doing in the future. She said, "Yes," and that she liked it and wanted to do more performances. She did NOT get that from me!

I didn't get any pictures of L with her grandparents or Uncle Dan & Beth, because by the time I got backstage to get her, she had already stripped off hger costume and jewelry. I was quite annoyed, but I understand. The elaborate costumes/jewelry and not remotely comfortable!

Here's her guru Meenakshi with her younger son, and then in her role as the goddess Sita.

Happy (belated) Diwali!

I finally got around to taking shots of the other pumpkins L carved--a bat and a cat.

L's first big Bharatanatyam performance is tomorrow! That's kept me busy and stressed this week! I am extremely nervous about this--not L's dancing--but about getting her dressed and made up correctly. I barely slept last night, with worrying about her veshti (similar to a sari) coming unwrapped while she's dancing, or her many elaborate pieces of temple jewelry falling out of her hair.

As part of our parental volunteer duties, I will also be taking photographs of the girls and the performance. I tried to get M to usher, which would have covered our contribution, but he flatly refused. In retrospect, I should have been more firm about him doing it, because he's Mr. Skippy Stress-free over this whole event, while I'm freaking!

The next activity L decides to get involved in really needs to be something that requires M to be very involved in. It's his turn for a little bit of this work and stress that always seems to fall on 'mom'. We need a good labor-intensive dad-managed activity!

I have to get her up in the morning and get her all dressed, and I'm not feeling very confident in getting her pleats and wrapping right. Also have to do the dreaded side-bun-with-center-part hairstyle that pushed my poor crippled hands' limits last time I did it. Then we have to do the elaborate makeup and jewelry, get her bags all packed up, and leave before 11 to pick up a friend from her class. The girls have to be there at noon, though the performance doesn't start until 2:00. I'm curious to see how Meena will be able to keep all of those girls from getting messy before the performance. Nothing about the clothing and jewelry is comfortable. Those girls have to stay in their costumes until after 4, when the show is finished.

Between the stress of trying to figure out what I'm doing with the clothes & jewelry, the intense daily practices, and the many trips back and forth for practices, this has completely monopolized my life and thoughts for the past two weeks. It will be such a relief when it's over tomorrow! All of the girls were looking good at last night's stage rehearsal, so it should be a beautiful show!

Wednesday night was my birthday and was very much like any other Wednesday. I came home from work, made dinner, cleaned up and did chores, and then my mom came over to help my find ways to keep L's heavy sun & moon medallions in her slippery hair. We all watched the previous Thursday's episode of Outsourced online, once we got the hair jewelry solution we needed.

We all enjoy watching Outsourced (NBC)! It is a very funny family show. M & I don't often like the network sitcom type humor, and most of the shows we find funny aren't age appropriate for L, so we watch after she goes to bed. This is one that we all agree is funny, and it's kind of nice to be able to share it.

Weekend update

M & I both worked hard all day Saturday to get our chores (and my grading) done in time for date night. Our last date night, two weeks previous, I basically ruined. Fairly early in the evening, I decided to clear some dust from an item in my basement by blowing very hard at it. A large, sharp, pointy, spear of debris flew into my eyeball causing significant pain and scratching to it. I spent the entire rest of the night in severe pain, picking my runny eye, because I wasn’t sure if the pain was all due to the scratch or if there was a portion I hadn’t gotten out. My eye was very sore and nasty for a couple of days, but then it cleared up.

M had planned this date night as our night out for my upcoming birthday. As always, I had no idea what we were doing but knew I had to be ready by 4:45 and be fairly dressed up. That proved to be a little tricky, because I was having one of those days where I didn’t like the way I looked in anything I put on. I finally settled on an outfit, not because I loved it, but because I ran out of time. I actually liked the skirt/blouse/sweater combo I ended up in, but didn’t really like the tights or shoes I had on with it. They were better matches for the previous outfit that I had rejected. So I made it through the night and nobody pointed out that my tights were not the best choice for the color scheme of my outfit. J

After a delicious dinner of bangain bhartha (YUM!), we went to the Coronodo Performing Arts Center in Rockford, IL. I’ve blogged about the Coronodo before, but have to reiterate what a beautiful theater it is! Just spending a couple of hours in there looking at the feast of beauty that is everywhere is enjoyable, so a good performance on top of that is an extra bonus.

The show we saw was the Rockford Symphony Orchestra playing “Halloween Pops”. Each time we have heard RSO, we’ve been quite impressed by them. This time was no exception. They hit it out of the park with their first piece! In addition to the symphony, there was a classically-trained actor from NY there, telling some short Halloween-type stories. He had a rich baritone-bass voice and with his perfect diction, captivated all of us. I have always been drawn to the dark/macabre, so the music and the whole theme of the night worked for me.

My favorite portion of the evening was the final act, his classical reading of Poe’s classic, The Raven. I LOVE Poe. I love The Raven. I love to hear it read aloud by true thespians, so the whole experience was a score for me.

Sunday was kind of a whirlwind day. We had to go to Madison in the afternoon for L’s dance rehearsal; then back home to a few chores; then time to get ready for Trick or Treating.

L played a very cute prank on her dance teacher. The big performance is next Sunday, and everyone gets a bit stressed, as preparations and practice is pretty intense at this point, especially her teacher. The girls’ hair length is quite important in this style of dance, and Meenakshi always stresses when the girls get their hair cut or trimmed that it may not be long enough by the next performance. L showed up for rehearsal wearing her little play wig, which is her hair color and looks frighteningly authentic. It’s also very short. Meena saw L, put her hand up over her mouth, and said, “Oh my god!” She then said, “Did you CUT your HAIR?” L immediately broke into giggles and took the wig off. Meena was able to then breathe a sigh of relief and laugh.

We proceeded with our normal Halloween traditions after that. A quick, early dinner of pizza at my parents’, where Logan & Colton joined us. We headed out for ToTing from there, walking from my parents’ home to ours and back. All three kids had full buckets. Since L doesn’t eat most of her candy (not a big candy eater, and she only eats the vegan goodies), she had given most of it to the boys by the time we dropped them off at home. We got back to our house a bit after 9 and tried to get her settled in for bed. The very small amount of candy she has left will probably sit in her bag until I get tired of looking at it and dispose of it a few months from now.

All three of the kids ended up in “scary” costumes this year. Logan was a devil; Colton was a skelton; and L was a werewolf. She and M went shopping a few weeks ago, without me or my input, and returned home with the werewolf mask and gloves. I assumed that M explained to her the problems with a full face mask like that, as she’s never had or worn one before. I learned last night that he did not. She didn’t like the condensation and constant wetness dripping in the rubber face mask. She didn’t like that it was kind of hard to see out of the eye holes whenever the mask shifted. She didn’t leave the gloves on very long, because she couldn’t use her hands in them. She was a bit whiney about the whole thing. I KNEW she wasn’t going to like the mask experience, but I assumed that he had explained it all to her, and she said it wouldn’t bother her and wanted to get it anyway. If I were there, I would have explained in graphic detail what she would experience wearing that big mask. She might have listened and chosen something else, but she very likely would have agreed, said she didn’t mind, and still proceeded to whinge about it.

Back when they got the costume, she came home wearing it. Daisy and Jezebel were at the side door looking out (as usual), so they saw her approaching. Daisy became very frightened and started backing up, and two little turds actually eeked out of her butt—she was that terrified of the mask at first site. L took that as a great endorsement that she was indeed a very scary werewolf. Daisy’s fine with it now.

Jasper should have been able to go collar free yesterday, but alas, it looks like it will have to remain on him for the foreseeable future. Though the stitches are out and the inside has healed well, the outer part of the incision has not been able to heal up the way it should. Jasper is obsessed with getting at it and has learned to scratch it open with the edge of his collar. I can’t find any means to block him from doing this. I routinely come home to find that the edge of his collar is smeared with fresh blood. It is so frustrating, because if he would just leave it alone for two days, this whole nightmare would be over. My poor little guy just doesn’t understand that, so he is making a lot of unnecessary suffering for himself.

Last week in review

We’ve had a very busy week! Lots of headaches and little sleep. I haven’t even been able to squeeze in blogging time. Since my memory is not good, I have kept little notes of the high point. Here’s the week in review.

MONDAY: Jasper got his stitches removed but not his e-collar. Petey also had to go in for Xrays. After completing a round of Clavamox for a urinary infection, his urine on Sunday was full of blood. Xrays showed no stones or blockages, so he was put on a different antibiotic.

TUESDAY: Worked am & pm with chores in between.

WEDNESDAY: Alliance for Animals Board meeting. Day two of the worst wind I’ve ever driven in. The Interstate drive to work and back on both Tues. & Weds. was really rough! The drive back to Madison for Weds. night’s board meeting was unreal. It took all of my upper body strength to keep the Corolla in my lane! The lovely Marina brought a bowl full of pumpkin seeds, and I used all of the internal strength I had to keep from scarfing them down greedily.

THURSDAY: Full school day for L & I. History used to be one of her favorite subjects, but she’s grown very tired of it and annoyed that it’s, “…just a bunch of dumb men fighting for a piece of land or an imaginary god”. I fear that will always be the one-sentence summary of human existence. My midterm grades were due, so I spent a fair bit of time getting all the grading finished, so I could calculate and enter all of the grades.

FRIDAY: Logan & Colton came bright and early in the morning to spend the day playing with us. H joined us in the afternoon. Weather was decent enough that the kids played outside for the majority of the day. All four got along well, so it was a pretty good day for everyone. After a dinner of baked potatoes with chili (H & L both LOVE that meal), the kids played until they finally went to sleep (quite late). Dej came over and hung out with us for the evening.

SATURDAY: L carved her pumpkins, and I made a delicious batch of pumpkin seeds for us to snack on and enjoy. We LOVE pumpkin seeds! She carved three pumpkins, but with the shortage of time, I only got a photo of the first one.

BFFs

We had a great family weekend and are currently watching Gremlins for our Sunday family movie. L has never seen it, so M decided it was time. I wanted a Gremlin (Gizmo, the good one) so badly when this movie came out. I still do.

Dej, Luke, and I went to see Paranormal Activity 2 last night. We really enjoyed the movie, but not so much the crowd (young, rude, and loud). I think we'll avoid a late Sat. night showing in the future--at least in town here.

Dej took this pic of my cute little snuggle bunnies, Petey and Jezebel, with her phone. I never have my camera close at hand when they snuggle up so adorably. Of course if I got up and walked upstairs to get it, they would have to be nosy and follow me, so I miss so many good pics. Fortunately, Dej was here and snapped a quick shot for me.

Jasper is scheduled to get his stitches out tomorrow, though I'm not convinced that it's healed enough for them to come out. Petey is urinating blood, so I think he has stones or crystals. I'll have to get him in tomorrow for tests. It's always something.

Jasper's reprieve

Jasper got to enjoy a nice long, supervised collar-free time tonight. He ate, groomed himself on the bed, took a nap on the bed, groomed himself in his favorite windowsill, and relaxed. Sadly, it will have to go back on until his supervised free time tomorrow. My poor little guy!

L & I are working on new bedtime book. I really like when she doesn’t have a book ready and I get to pick it! This is the third book in a row she has let me select, and I love it! I was trying to decide between Kafka and Dostoevsky this time. I went with Kafka, because I think we will enjoy Dostoevsky more when her brain is a little more ready to handle more of the complexities and subtleties in a year or so, which will make it much more fun for both of us. We are working on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, which is a very trippy work. It’s been so many years since I read it, that I was a little concerned that it may start out too slowly and then I would lose her. I know that it’s critical for her to be drawn into the book, especially the classics. Some of them really require a lot of boring foundational material before they get off the ground, and then by the time the book gets really interesting to her, she has already mentally checked out. I was thrilled to see that Kafka jumps right into the matter at hand on the first page, so she was enthralled right away.

As I was typing the above, it just occurred to me that she is probably ready to get into another one of my faves, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, after we finish Kafka. I’m sure she will enjoy the book immensely, at the very least, at a literary level. I’m not sure she is able to appreciate all of the deeper themes of the book, but I do think she will get a good portion of it and we can have fun philosophical discussions based on the book. While I love the book, it is very sad and usually makes me cry. She will enjoy mocking me for that.

Growing up, we were constantly amused by my mother’s propensity to weep for no apparent reason. It was completely incomprehensible to my brother and I how the woman could cry at commercials, Disney movies, happy occasions… absolutely anything! I still don’t understand it, yet I have now become THAT person, and my inexplicable weepiness now entertains and puzzles my children. It irritates me that it’s illogical and seemingly beyond my control! I still don't know how it happened!

Family photos

Last night was one of those rare nights that L wandered in to climb in bed between us. She was having bad dreams, and every time she would wake up and go back to sleep, she would go back to that same bad dream. I’ve had nights like that, and it’s pretty rotten!

She and Jasper had to press their hot-furnace-like little bodies along my back for the majority of the night. Hot flashes, which seem to be worse at night, combined with two hot little furnaces make for a rough night. As if that weren’t quite enough, Jasper still has the GIANT collar on. Every time I or L bump the collar, it is very loud. When he moves, it always rubs on things and makes noise.

Then Jasper, who today is my least favorite cat (though I just had to give him an extra cuddle and treat for typing that), decided about 90 minutes before my alarm was due to go this morning, that he needed to eat his crunchy food and noisily shake his head (and thus the stupid e-collar) every few bites. Of course after a good meal, one needs to visit the litter box, and turn around at least 68 times, making sure to scrape the loud plastic collar against all four sides of the damn box. And being the thorough little guy he is, he had to scratch the sand loudly for about three minutes straight to cover up his business. Then the next 10 minutes or so he proceeded to groom himself, by licking the e-collar with his loud, scratchy tongue, repeatedly while contorting around (again, dragging the collar loudly on every surface in the vicinity. Yelling, “Shut up. Shut up you little fucker!”, did not improve the situation, but it did lead into another hot flash. Needless to say, I remained awake and was not able to enjoy the last, sweet 90 minutes of sleep that should have been mine.

I knew after I finished my makeup that I was still looking pretty rough this morning, but I discovered just how rough at my 11 meeting. I don’t usually think much of it when my mom or a female co-worker comments that I look tired. Women pick up on subtle details like that. When my male user walked into the room and said, “YOU look TIRED!” I know that I’ve crossed into the optically offensive territory—my looks are so disturbing and hideous that I probably shouldn’t be out in public.

Also my hair was in on the ugly today. I almost always wash my hair shortly before bed. I go to bed with my hair wet, wake up with it almost dry, comb it, and that’s it. This morning I woke up to find my hair had tried to commit mutiny overnight. I can’t even describe what was going on or how it happened, but it made my head shape strange and lumpy looking, with one section that shot straight out to the side. I don’t have “hair time” in my morning routine and had no extra time to accommodate it. I pulled the worst of it back, stuck a barrette in and left the house with hair that was less of a disaster, but a lumpy disaster nonetheless.

I’m too tired to come up with any more excitement than that for this blog entry and too lazy to take any pictures. Since we just got our family pics back last week, I will post them tonight. We had them taken at LIV Photography. We had the traditional, more formal shot taken for the relatives. The cow t-shirts & jeans shots are for us. Those are definitely a more accurate depiction of our family. They will probably be the last family photos we have taken, because my children do not make it a very pleasant experience. L would only give a fake smile, and Dej found it entertaining to make strange faces and flare her nostrils randomly in the photos. I was amazed that Sarah (the photographer) found any that were decent!