Back from "Vacation"

Arabella and I arrived home from Texas last night, and I am feeling more tired than when I left.

CHAPTER ONE, departure

I got to the airport, checked in, and the counter agent said "did you know your drivers liscence is expired? You can still fly, but you won't be able to rent a car at your destination."

ffffff...... well, you know. So I had to have Dad rent a car and drive us down to the farm. Oh goody.

CHAPTER TWO, the farm

I think my grandmother has spent the past few eyars thinking that Mom and I are over-reacting to Arabella being a normal child, or that we are just unaccustomed to children. I think she doesn't feel that way any longer. She told several people that "Arabella just doesn't slow down, from the moment she wakes until she goes to bed at night, she is always in motion". Apparently I was a more mellow child, although one revelation was that as a child my Mom used to have some brilliant, pound her head on the floor, temper tantrums. This may be a key piece of the puzzle.

Arabella really enjoyed being on the farm, and on the day that Uncle Sonny showed us a wild turkey in the field, Arabella was in love with the wildlife. Later she spotted the turkey in the low area, about 50-60 yards from the house, and stood at the window yelling "C'MERE CHICKEN!" Poor turkey. Arabella kept after it for about 20 minutes, until it disappeared into the tall grass.

CHAPTER THREE Cousins

Arabella was visited by her cousins, David's 3 girls one day, then we went and spent part of an afternoon with Michael's 3 girls. Elizabeth & Sarah spent the afternoon dressing up Arabella in different outfits like she was a big doll. And of course, Arabella loved it, any time she is the center of attention she is happy. She spent the rest of the visit asking when her cousins were coming.

CHAPTER FOUR My own observations

Texas is greener than I have ever seen it, and I was havng some massive home-sickness (ironic, since I really grew up in Los Angeles, but I'm strange). It was hot, it was humid, and as anyone who knows me can tell, hot and humid doens't bother me too much. I felt like picking up and heading to Texas. I did have to remind myself that this year is unusual, there has been a record amount of rain, and next year might be so dry as to bake it to a dry crisp. But it reminded me that there is alot of South that might be possible.

I also noticed that while 20 years ago there was an even distribution of uncleared land (cactus and mesquite and other shrub), cattle, and cultivation (peanuts, watrmelon, etc), and 4 years ago it was all cattle and uncleared land and no cultivation, now it is very little of anything (some cows, some corn). Apparently the property prices are being inflated by buyers who are not interested in running cattle or farming, but who fence off a couple hundred acres and use the ranch for hunting. I don't know how they pay the property taxes without having cattle, but the way the relatives talk, in another 10 years there will be no small ranchers in South Texas. The thought of the family farm (purchased by my great-great grandfather just after the civil war) being sold off for houses or a private hunting preserve makes me nauseous.

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Pictures will follow when the mother has a little more energy.

She's OK

I thought of titling this post "A's first trip to the ER" but thought I might get some panic, so I decided not to do that.

Yesterday we were having a more difficult than usual nap routine, probably due to the busy-ness of our day. We went to the zoo, went to school so I could clean the classroom, came home and ate lunch, went to the bank, and then came home and I tried to lure her in for a nap. She wanted to sleep in the spare bedroom (aka Pop-pop's Room), and I said that would be fine, but she kept procrasinating, and when she stood inside the drapes and refused to lie down for a story, I said fine, no story, its just time for your nap. I got up to leave the room, Arabella tried to lunge out to catch me and make her case for getting a story, and got tangled in the drapes, fell flat on the bed, and smacked her forehead on the corner of the little wooden chest that serves as a nightstand. She cried, I pulled her up, and blood was everywhere, pouring out of what appeared to be a puncture in her forehead, just inside the hairline. I screamed for Michael to bring a towel, while holding my hand over her streaming head. As a head wound, it bled like crazy. Michael brought the first aid kit, and while I cleaned the wound he got the gauze and tape and called the Dr's office. The Dr's office said to keep pressure on it and go to the ER, so we did.

We spent 3 hours in the ER. They now have tv's in the little rooms where you wait for the Dr. We saw Ghostbusters in its entirety, in Spanish. Interesting. A wouldn't let us change the station, so we couldn't look for a program in English until the credits rolled.

And after all that, the nice young Dr. came, cleaned her up a little (I had done most of the cleaning while waiting and watching Ghostbusters), put some ointment and a bandaid on it and said she couldn't put in stitches because there wound wasn't a clean cut, but kind of a mashed in thing, and she couldn't really get a stitch in there. This was after telling repeatedly that, no she did not lose consciousness, no she had not been vomiting or queasy, and what do you mean acting strange, she's always strange, but yes she's been acting normally "for her". The nice Dr. said it may scar, but as it's right in her hairline it probably won't show much. Michael was mad, saying that HE could have put some ointment and a Bandaid on Arabella's head.

On the way out, we saw a person going into the MRI who was covered in Betadine and was quite a mess. We are very lucky.

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Today I went to Orientation for the church I have selected, and Arabella went to the daycare, and Ms. A, who was looking after the kids today, greeted her. Arabella had brought her giraffe toy with her, and introduced Giraffe to Ms. A, who said, "Oh, hello, Mr. Giraffe" According to Ms. A, Arabella gave her an odd look (best described as "who let the crazy lady take care of me?) and said very slowly as if explaining a basic truth: " Giraffe can't Talk." Ms. A told me this while laughing, and said that in 12 years of teaching, that was the first time a child made her feel dumb. That's our girl.

Ways Michael and I are alike

M and I have been told we share a resemblance. Despite the 10 inches of difference in height and the fact his hair is an afro and my hair is so straight it looks ironed. We do have the same coloring, although he tans and I don't. Ironic, since I am the one who grew up in sunny L.A. and he grew up in balmy Philadelphia. I'm not sure he knew he tans dark until we lived in San Diego.

In New Orleans a co-worker said we looked like brother and sister, and I dead-panned that "We are, but in our town, everyone knew about us and we had to leave." She stared hard at me for a minute before laughing.

While he was in Chicago this week, cousin V told Michael that he and I have similar mannerisms.

Now, as of Monday, we both have box cutter wounds on our left hands from doing stupid things. I went to a book arts class, and was using Michaels flip-out box cutter and the blade was dull and it slipped and very neatly sliced open my left index finger. It was about an inch long wound, and at first, though it hurt, I looked and thought, wow, no blood.

And then it decided to bleed, and when I pressed it, I could see down and down, and wow, I could see all the layers of skin, and, underneath that, muscle and ligament (michael says it is fat). Like an anatomy lesson, but in my hand! Erg. I was staying calm, and the teacher came and we cleaned it and bandaged it and off I went. No stitches (unlike M), but it does hurt. And I have full flexion in the finger, so I obviously didn't go into the important structures.

Now the funny part of this is that Arabella wanted to know what the heck I was doing, and why I had a mass of gauze wrapped around my knuckle, so I told her. And she told everyone. EVERYONE. "Mommy cut her finger with a knife and got a bad boo-boo, so she has a band-aid" Who needs press releases? I think she may have a future career as a publicist.

For those of you wondering about Michael, he stabbed the palm of his hand with a box cutter while cutting the binding off a new saw about 4 years ago, the night before Easter, and after driving around half of town we found a place that would stitch up his hand and put it on our insurance. I think he had 4 stitches, but I could be off by one or two.

Michael is back home as of last night, and we are happy he is back from romping in Chicago.

Mother's Day Present

M and I have decided that whenever one of us goes on a trip, that is the signal for Arabella to get sick. When I went to New York in March, he and A both came down with stomach flu.

Yesterday A and I headed to church, me knowing that M would be gone when we returned, headed off for his conference in Chicago (I don't begrudge him some time without family, the poor thing hasn't had any family-free time, aside from work, since last summer, when he helped a friend move cross-country). While we were at church, I noticed Arabella was rather subdued; not wanting to play with Ginger, who is her usual bud there, and leaning against my arm. She said she was ok, and I sent her off to RE (Sunday School) but when we met up with the children during our 5 minutes of standing in the peace garden (did I mention its a hippie-liberal-tree-hugging kinda church?), I was told Arabella had fallen asleep in the teachers lap.

She Never Does That.

She wanted to go straight home and take a nap.

She never does that either.

She had a temperature of 101.5, and I dosed her up with Tylenol and put her to bed. 30 minutes later she was up and running about and eating as if food had only just been invented. I eventually got her to take a late nap by telling her mommy needed a nap, and would she come and lay down with me? But after 4 hours the crabby sleepies returned, and we had to go to the store for more Tylenol.

Last night was rough, she was up regularly until 2:30, but then slept through until 8am. And now she is perky and happy and watching Little Bear as if she was never sick. Amazing.

Famous Resemblances

Thanks Cynical Dad, for this fun link: http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php

Upload an picture of yourself, and run it through the Face Recognition Software, and it comes up with a list of famous people you resemble. Now, granted, the picture I used wasn't very flattering, but ... Some of my resemblances, in descending order:
1. Janeane Garolfalo. And I thought my only resemblance to her was being short. And outspoken.
2. Liv Ullman. Um, ok, I don't see it.
3. Penelope Cruz. Michael only wishes this were so.
4. Lisa Kudrow. They obviously perceived my inner space tomato.
5. Louis Pasteur. I don't see it.

Amazingly the one name I expected and which did not appear was Mary-Louise Parker, of Fried Green Tomatoes and West Wing. I have had people stop me and ask if I was she, in Italy, in Los Angeles, in San Diego. And then ask again, as if I might be she, incognito.

When I ran an old picture of Michael through the software (when he had more hair and beard than he does now) it came up with Matthew Lillard (Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo movies), and a young Albert Einstein. So when they cast the movie of our boring life, Janeane Garofalo and Matthew Lillard will be starring.

I know all my readers know what I look like, what do you think? And, if you give it a try, what did the software say about you?

Mothers Day

This is the Clematis that Dad planted last year. It would be taller, but it keeps trying to spread instead of climb. They sure do add bright color and lift my spirits. Arabella has been helping with the gardening, watering especially, though I did catch her with the pruning scissorsyesterday, about to cap the smaller of the Black Oak trees M planted. I think she has confused the buds on the trees with the bugs in the garden. Amazingly, considering her overly attentive ministrations to the 2 dozen seeds she planted, there are two sunflower seedlings coming up. The blackberries are covered in buds and delicate white flowers, soon to be fruit. the red raspberry seems to have had some damage from the late freeze, and the old growth died back, but it is full of knee high volunteers, none with buds. The yellow raspberry is making a comeback, slowly, but it may be next year before it makes fruit either. We also have two tomatoes plants in the garden, growing fast and furiously. I am soon to be hunting for a red or yellow bell pepper, and that will be all for our tiny little veggie patch.


The in-laws visited 2 weeks ago, and had a short, but lovely visit. The weather was nice, so we had lots of outdoor time.


And I have been knitting. I made this for J-'s baby girl. Its 50 cotton/50 acrylic, so it is machine washable but soft as a bunny. I do wonder, since the pattern calls for dishcloth cotton (100% cotton) if it is meant to shrink, cuz it seems awfully large for a newborn. I don't think this will do alot of shrinking. I am engaged to make at least 3 more this summer, 2 for gifts and one for a trade with a pregnant artist. And oh yeah, I should make one for my OWN baby.

Which, by the way, the ultrasound suggests strongly will be ... a girl. This will be advantageous in names (M and I have more agreement on girl names than boy names), and in sleeping arrangements (A and baby2 can share a room, when the baby is big enough to need more space), and in clothing and such stuff (we still havea healthy amount of baby clothing and gear left over from A). Otherwise, the ultrasound shows a perfectly sized, healthy and active baby, all that really matters to me. It would appear my due date stands firm. October 6. If this baby is as anxious to be born as A, then that will be more like October 1. On Tuesday I go and discuss delivery options with the OB. As A was delivered in about 3 - 3 1/2 hours of labor, I am understandably concerned about an unintentional home / car delivery. Is a 3-year-old ready to help with a delivery?

Baby name roundup.
In keeping with the New Orleans street name theme, we have checked a list of names (in addition to using our own memories), and the top 3 so far are:
Julia (where the galleries are located)
Sabine
Violet

Names we will not be using, so don't even ask:
Bourbon
Burgundy (did you know it was originally Craps Street?)
Ursulines
Calliope
Erato
Urania

I prepared for the trip to Texas by getting loads of yarn and some bamboo circular needles so there won't be any trauma at security time. I pointed out to the UUI knitting group yesterday that even if the TSA says something is "safe" for carryon, security personnel still have the right to take away anything they deem dangerous. Even knitting needles.

"what do you believe?"

What do you get if you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian?

Someone who knocks on your door and says "What do YOU believe?"

The Unitarian Minister told us about a quiz, the Belief O Matic (no, I am not kidding), which will tell you with which theology your beliefs most closely align.

My top three:

1. Unitarian Universalist
2. Neo-Pagan
3. Liberal Quaker

Catholicism, the faith I was raised in, was nextt o last, just above Jehovah's Witness, and after Evangelical Christian and Islam. Go figure. Take the quiz and let us know what YOU believe.

J- had her baby, a girl named Lucille, and I am almost done with the baby kimono. Fortunately, it looks biggish, and so I think little Luci will have plenty of wear in it.