Santa Ana to Santa Barbara and back: an overview

Preferred Driving Music: 2Pac and Leslie Fiest

Friday
- Were met at the Orange Country (a.k.a. Santa Ana, a.k.a. John Wayne) airport by Bill of Vintage SURFari Wagons in Nalu Imi (“Wave Hunter”), the 1979 VW camper
- Were initially disappointed by Orange County and California because everything looked like the suburbs of Chicago (housing subdivisions and Target) but in stucco
- Got stuck in big traffic jam on the 405 going past LA but didn’t notice because we were too busy making a music video to 2Pac’s California Love
- Got beeps and waves from people lovin’ the camper
- Stopped where Bill had told us to at Emma Woods state beach just past Ventura and met two surfers, Adrian from Australia and Jeff from California, who gave us the scoop on where to learn to surf and where to visit
- Camped in Carpenteria, a town just up the coast where the surfers had suggested; kind of a crappy campsite but a very lovely town and ocean view

Saturday
- Ate breakfast on the beach
- Called Brad Hagan in San Francisco to let him know we now realistically understood we would never make it that far north to see him; Brad was at a TGIFridays when we called, but he claims it was like the first time in years
- Hung out in Carpenteria, taking in a classic car show and spending way too much on clothes but really enjoying finding clothes we both loved
- Went down to Santa Claus Lane just north of Carpenteria to the A-Frame Surf Shop to see the guys Jeff and Adrian had mentioned
- Got an evening surf lesson with Eric and both managed to stand; learned SURFING IS HARD and realized that the average person in California generally has two more good-looking points than the average person in Chicago due to their sun-kissed skin and athleticism
- Got invited to a party at Eric’s place and then camped out on his street

Sunday
- Ate an extremely overpriced breakfast at the Brown Pelican overlooking the water near/in Santa Barbara
- Walked the beach our waitress told us was named Hendry’s but a sign said was called Arroyo something
- Shopped a bit in Santa Barbara
- Drove through the wine country of the 154 (BEAUTIFUL)
- Camped on the ocean at the rather crappy Gaviota state beach

Monday
- Breakfast on the beach as usual
- A slight tantrum from a pre-menstrual Angela set off by the loss of a pair of earrings she had just bought in Carpenteria
- A drive back through wine country past the Los Olivos grocery store with much time spent filming and rigging the camera to the front of the van for enhanced filming
- Back to Santa Claus Lane to rent surf boards and practice; ran in to surfers Adrian and Jeff again, wondering what job allowed them to surf mid afternoon on a Monday; Angela had to wimp out after 40 min of surfing due to being thrashed by waves, Oli went strong for 2 hours but was also thrashed
- Realized we could park for free overnight in the public lots in Santa Barbara overlooking the water
- Went out to a touristy dance bar on State St where many foreign college students went looking for something like the discotheques back in their home countries
- Walked down State St a few blocks to our van and passed out from exhaustion

Tuesday
- Chilled in our van overlooking the water for a LONG time, immobilized by tired
- Decided to drive back down the coast, stopping to walk down Venice Beach’s Ocean Front Walk before finally making it to Orange County
- BUT the van wouldn’t start after we stopped to use the bathrooms at a beach along the way; fuel was shooting out of the fuel line when Oli tried to start it
- Within five minutes or so a guy pulled up who was camping at the beach and also happened to be a former VW mechanic; one butter knife later the naughty bit was secured back in place over the fuel line and we made it to Venice
- Walked the classic part of Venice Beach, then impressed passers by with our Frisbee skills
- Checked in to an airport hotel where Bill picked up the van

Wednesday
- Woke up WAY too early for humans to imagine and flew home
- Angela had a pretty good cold that had started as a nose tickle, a reaction to salty blasts from multiple submerssions in massive waves

Can’t wait to see Lily when she comes back to us tomorrow morning!!!
Must purchase a camper for ourselves; Bill says he's happy to help.
Look forward to a future surf vacation where we work out our kinks over a week of intensive practice.
And lastly, Friday is my last day at work. Sweeb, as we say in Milford.

PS - Video version of the above vacation will be available in a few weeks....as will Marty and Megan's wedding from last August and my niece's b-day party from last July...

~

Dad vs Lily

Where are you from?

Fair play

So a certain 5-year-old child we shall not name often gives my niece and nephew a hard time, and my sister has a hard time with this child's mom. The child constatly yanks things out of Jake and Marisa's hands and the mother always replies with, "Let's just let her have it. That's one of her/his favorite toys," instead of doing some gosh darn parenting. When Jake or Marisa ask to play with certain toys, this child generally says no, and the mother doesn't encourage sharing (Some times sharing is a crock and kids should be allowed to say no, but this a pretty extreme case). My sister tries to let the kids battle it out themselves and not to say too much (unless things get physical), espcially because if she says anything, the other mom gets upset that someone has criticized the child.

So after an afternoon of having things taken from their hands and being told they couldn't play with anything, when the kids got in the car and my sister asked if they had fun, they immediately complained about this kid. My nephew Jake told his sister, "You know what we should do, Marisa?! When - comes to our house next time, we should put an electric fence around our toys and each time - goes to grab a toy s/he'll get zapped, and then s/he'll learn not to play with OUR toys!"

What a Jake.

Leslie Feist

For those of you who haven't heard, she's delicious:

Mushaboom music video
May 3, 2007 on NPR
July 25, 2005 on NPR
Wikipedia article

PS - I know I'm years behind.

Lily's first birthday!

It's a bit long at over 5 mins, and I know no one actually cares as much as we do, but here it is, enjoy.

Battles and Breakthroughs

Battle
Angela vs. Webshots
I'm currently trying to post all our good pictures online in big albums so we have a system we can just keep adding to. I've opted for Webshots again because there's better organizatonal tools than Facebook, and it has a function where you can share your Webshots photos on Facebook. BUT now Webshots has decided that about 1 out of every 3 of my photos is "in the wrong format" and I for the life of me, despite hours (Oli can attest) of comparing file types and sizes and orginals to renamed version, cannot figure out why. I am going to email Webshots.

Breakthrough
Esther Greenwood = Holden Caulfield = Huck Finn
I re-read the Bell Jar last week and LOVED it. It had depressed me beyond belief when I read it sophomore or junior year of college, probably because I held so many of the same fears as Esther Greenwood. Now that I realize choosing one life path doesn't necessarily exclude all others, I was able to appreciate how well the book is written and the narrator's voice crafted. I even got dorky and wrote out a character sketch of things Esther would and wouldn't do because I wanted to see how well I understood her just from reading her story. Answer: pretty well. Well done to Sylvia Plath; it's just a shame she can't be here to revel in her genius....

Thinking about Esther got me thinking about Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn and I am convinced they are very similar:
1. Their personal opinions don't jive with those of the society around them
2. They all act out and go on personal adventures in relation to their rebellion
3. They all think humorous self-depricating thoughts constantly in relation to 1 and 2 to make things not seem so bad

In any case, I'm half way done re-reading Catcher and will move on to Huck next week. My train rides to and from work are pretty fun lately.

Why did you need to know all that? Just because, I suppose.

She's back, for a limited time only.

Remodeling

Check out link changes under "Las fotos y los videos" to the right. Now non-Facebook users can access our photos there through these links :) Adios Webshots.

More to come...

"Tears of pain wash the blood away."

A quote from a pbs documentary narrator. A Japanese fighter pilot fights to regain control of his plane after winning a dogfight against an American fighter over Guadelcanal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saburo_Sakai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_Southerland

Girl Next Door

What do you do when Playboy (yes, Playboy) conducts a film shoot in your neighbours garden?
This:

She's a girl

A new gallery.

bloggidy bloggy blog blog blog

Someone keeps harrassing with me emails and texts telling me to write more blog entries. I am hearby stating to that person that I will not give in, not now, not ever - I shall not write ANY blog entries. Leave me alone. Please.

In other news, Angela and I are going to Summer Camp music festival this Thursday to see Umphrey's McGee, Tea Pot Green and a host of other unmemorable bands. I'll be volunteering at Lollapalooza this year, and you can too, simply by signing up on their website. Ummm what else...considering getting an SLR, not going to Panama can't afford it, might go to California camping in a camper van, there's a hole in the living room floor, getting ready to move to Europe in a few months ...if you need stuff to fill your apartment with, such as a round bed, a butcher block, papa-san chair with stool, TV, N64 with MarioKart and GoldenEye, anything and everything really, put your bids in now, 'cause we got a lot of stuff to be rid of and if you can pick it up it's yours.

Listened to the Wilco and Decemberist and haven't listened to them again since. nuff said.

Facebook Fotos

New photos on my Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7457&l=7fcf4&id=659342526

Some old BCN and Chicago Christmas things are up.

Oli has most of the Lily pictures on his computer, thus the lack of pictures of my child.

~

Info post

I'm back in my role as warrior against junk mail, particularly credit card applications. Not only is junk mail annoying, but it kills over 100 million trees a year (!).

For Americans to rid themselves of credit card application mail, see:
This link
Then click on the first option:
Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email: Where to Go to "Just Say No"

Removal from lists will require a phone call or some letters but the link provides the phone number or, if you're in a mail mood, a template for the letters.

To remove yourself from other mail marketing lists:
https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

Save yourself some headaches, and save some trees for Lily and her short friends of the future.

Everyone poops

Especially Lily.

England Part 4

Crazy - The most amazing home videos are here

New vid at last - North Avenue beach

I've just gotten over a long period of dislike for video editing; this is something I rustled up rather quickly to give those back in the UK an idea of how the little one is doing.

Enjoy

Resumes

Oli and I are correcting high school students' resumes. Here are some gems:

As a bullet point describing a recent position held:
- Work together to create globe on how to solve global warming
- Experiences kinds of different evasive species

Under Skills:
- Good communicator skills

Another student's Skills section:
- I communicate pretty well

Under Interests on another:
- Baseball
- Reading manga
- Watching anime
- Computers

Another description of a recent position:
- discussed about the earth
- took "fieldtrips"
- cut down bushes
- cleaned the earth

And on a slightly darker note:
- Education: 2 years of high school - planning on graduating

Ain't nuttin but baby talk up in here

Just some Lily chat and mommy thoughts here.

She still climbs everything and now can mount the futon by lifting up a foot, placing it on the seat and hoisting herself up. Very humorous to see (Eh-hem, Oli.).

Her comprehension of English and Spanish grows by a handful of phrases each week. Tonight I almost scared her with my shouts of joy when we were in the bath and I asked, "Donde esta el pie de Liliana?" and she franticallly searched the water for her foot, finding it and lifting it into the air with her hands.

Overall, we girls had simply the best evening together. A trip to the library to grab some baby books set us up to meet some little Mexican girls who switched from English to Spanish as soon as they realized we understood. They poked Lily, chased her, hugged her and kissed her, and were sad to see us go. It made me hope our life in Spain might be like that...

Lily ate a big dinner and I must say, I do love dinner time sometimes because I take the opportunity while Lily is tied in a chair to entertain her with all my talents. While Lily eats, I generallly do the dishes, then dance and make faces at her, getting her into hysterics by putting my back to her and then looking at her quickly over my shoulder. Somehow she manages to feed herself, and sometimes me, during all this.

Bathtime, another time for us to be silly, was stellar as well. Lately Lily is learning to wash people, including herself. The only danger is the old soap-in-the-eye bit. When that happens, Lily knows water needs to be dumped over her head, which she is rather ok with, so long as it gets the bastard soap out. Similarly, as much as she hates putting on or taking off clothing, she understands how it works and lifts legs, arms, whatever to make the process go faster...that is, when she's not yelling at you to let her go.

All in all, this post is a big Yeah to myself that I feel Lily and I are buddies, that we're communicating, whether it be about getting clothes on, new vocabulary, or blowing bubbles in the bath, and perhaps most importantly, that Lily understands I like and respect her. I sometimes worry that I'll focus way too much on intellectual development and just be a mean mom who's no fun, that I'll explain way to much to her and always try to show her how to do things "right" rather than letting her take the wheel. On the contrary, lately I've really been enjoying being goofy, teaching Lil through goofiness, and generally just letting her know that I think highly of her. I'm really trying hard to teach Lil without stepping on her toes, to let her know she is good, and to just generally respect her so that as she grows she'll be open with me. Our buddiness is the first sign that she's getting the messages I'm trying to send her! So, that's all, just a post to share my worries and a little personal triumph.

Louis Theroux

Loo-ee Ther-oo.

He's a television journalist for the BBC and you should check him out because:
a) He is excellent at acting dim to disarm his subjects, a la Colombo
b) He does great interviews
c) His topics are interesting and outcomes oft unexpected
d) He's pretty cute in a dual national hipster way

See:
1) Wikipedia

2) Most Hated Family in America (in several parts on YouTube)

3) Google or YouTube "Louis Theroux Weird Weekends" and you'll find episodes of his old BBC program

Today

My parents came out to Small Bar with us this morning to watch English football. Lily ran up and down Division enjoying the glorious day and Oli chased her around with a pool cue. Dad read the paper and Mom raved about the whole wheat pancake. And yes, Mom asked the waiter his name and introduced herself to him.

After that it was Humbolt Park, walking around the fishing pond, over bridges and through patchy trees. We pointed at geese, dangled our feet in the cold water, found a big egg, released cat tail silk into the wind, and found a most excellent scrubby stick to hit things with. A typical day in kiddom, where you're king if you've got a stick in your hand and rich if you find several Heineken bottle tops. Lily is a queen and a millionaire today.

Today's our anniversary

No big plans in the works yet, though we've set aside next Monday when I'm off work to celebrate.

It always seems to happen that I don't realize an event is important to me until it arrives, and by that point, there's no time to plan anything or do anything, and it passes away so that next year when we ask ourselves, "What did we do on our anniversary," we will have no idea. Caramba.

In any case, it's a beautiful day, much of which has been spent outside with our Lil, and Mr. Milner may be arriving from New York tomorrow to spend a few days with us, so hopefully we can remember that!

~

More proof that our child is cool, but you already knew that

Being Lily's mother, she impresses me in many ways. Her new way of impressing me is with her bravery. She's so tough and inquisitive!

Take for instance her fearlessness when it comes to dogs. No matter how giant the beast, when Lily spots it from 100 feet away, she begins woofing like a high-pitched poodle and moving toward the thing. We must then go accost the owner, make them stop their walk and let Lily commune with the dog, which means letting her woof at it and pet or pinch it. Dogs don't seem to mind.





Another example: her new interest in climbing. Boxes, stools, roadside curbs, steps. You name it, Lily wants to put her feet on it....but not without asking for a helping hand from Mom or Dad once in a while. This makes me admire her even more; she's not a reckless child, leaping off things or clambering up things she can't manage, but she still goes for it. When she sees something climb worthy, she sticks her hand out to us, asking for a little stabilizing hand hold, and then begins her assent, which sometimes leaves her in a horizontal position, feet on the high thing and hands holding on to us.

Tonight she started exploring the world of swimming, which only further impresses me. We were in the bath together and it was quite deep. She slipped and went right under at one point, only to stand up and shake it off. I'd like to think my not freaking out about her falls helps her to not be bothered by them, but in this case, it was all Lily. Her slip under the water got her interested and from there she kept experimenting with ways to slip or float on her belly or back. This experimentation led to a few other dips under, but she just blinked out the water from her eyes and kept trying it out. What a cool kid.

Anyway, here's one last photo of her playing in the alley like a real city kid.

~

Lily in her 14th month

Nellie McKay

A few years ago I took a walk to Virgin Megastore on Michigan Avenue and ended up buying a CD that was on the $10 rack because I liked the cover. It was a two-disk set by a girl named Nellie McKay, and ended up being one of my favorite buys ever.

I still listen to Nellie regularly and as I was transferring my music into my new mac, I thought to look up where Nellie is now: http://www.nelliemckay.com/

I learned that Nellie had been interviewd on NPR when the album I had, entitled Get Away From Me, was released. On their site you can listen to the interview in which she sings live playing the piano, and you can hear that she really can sing as well and as in control as she does on the album. NPR also has some of her songs: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1700688

~

the prime minister ain't bothered

This film depicts a classic stereotype in the UK; the chav. I don't really know what the equivalent in the US is ("urban white trash" perhaps), but I think you'll soon understand the character if you're not familiar with it already.

In this scene a chav has an internship with the prime minister with chavlarious results. In the UK we use the expressions "I can't be bothered" and "I'm not bothered" to say "I don't want to do" something or "I'm not interested" in something. Knowing that, you should find Blair's perfomance quite amusing.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

I've been teaching my students at Earth Team that man-made global warming is real, that it is pernicious, that there is scientific consensus, and that we have to act immediately. I also told them a cause of global warming is carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, which is produced by burning fossil fuels.



But, according to a British documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle, I'm wrong.

It's not carbon dioxoide, stupid, it's the sun! Here are the main arguments:

- Records of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels since 1940 show a net increase, but during the period of greatest industrial growth 1940-1975, global temperature decreased steadily, and only began increasing again since the economic recession of the 1980s and thereafter.

- Theories of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas predict that the temperature in the troposphere should increase the fastest, but satellite and weather balloon data do not show this.

- Changes in solar activity match changes in global temperatures much more accurately than do changes in carbon dioxide levels (see chart above)

- Global temperature does not change due to changes in carbon dioxide levels, but rather, carbon dioxide levels change due to changes in global temperature. It is claimed that the Earth's oceans absorb carbon dioxide when they are cooler, and release it when they are warmer. When the Earth's average temperature increases over time, the oceans temperature also gradually increases and more CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Due to the large mass of the oceans, it takes a long time ("decades or centuries") for the reaction to temperature changes to occur. Thus, when a graph of the Earth's temperature change is compared to that of CO2 change, the CO2 chart mirrors the temperature one, on an 800-year delay.

- It is immoral for industrialised populations to demand that developing African nations ignore their reserves of cheap fossil fuels (coal and oil), and instead rely on expensive renewable power generation techniques, such as solar panels.

- The "2,500 top scientists" of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are not all scientists and do not all agree with the global warming report produced by the panel that points to CO2 as a cause of global warming.

See Wikipedia article from which most of the summary above was adapted :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle

when I was younger

I care because you do.

my favourite song.

London (England Part 3)

Earth Team

I teach about 25 high-school age kids 3 days a week in an afterschool program. It is an apprenticeship program that pays the students $10 an hour to come and learn about the environment. Or, rather, $10 an hour to build snowmen, watch "unconvenient truth " and, as the following video depicts, to go ice-skating.

The younglings are a lot of fun and a pleasure to work with.

America rules

an effort to counter increasing anti-americanism in europe.

atheists and amsterdam

According to the general public (who I hate), atheists cannot be trusted in office. They're less popular than 72-year-old Mormon homosexuals who've been married more than 3 times, allegedly.

Atheists don't stand for or believe in anything. And if they don't believe in God then they don't have morals. What's to stop them raping, murdering and torturing? Godless scum.

Coming from the UK, which is more secular than the US, I was immediately struck by the increased relgiousness of the people here, and often surprised by the hard time atheists got. It's the other way around in the UK. Something else I noticed here was how much you guys dislike the Dutch and the French. I know you guys think the French are pussies but I never understood why you hate the Dutch so much.

Someone please enlighten me.

Dying wishes

Oli and I have just been chatting and he's pointed out that:

"If I die...unexpectedly, I mean...I want you to, besides scatter my ashes on Brokeback Mountain, if I have unfinished videos, I want you to make sure they're finished. I mean maybe you could master the art of iMovie or Final Cut Express and finish them. That would be ideal. But if the funeral arrangements were just too much and the memories too painful for you to go through the footage, then, just have Ben do it."

Ben = Ben Milner

New baby

We received our new 15" Mac last Thursday and here's an example of the wacky things you can do with the built-in camera (I hope everyone understood that my use of "wacky" just then was strictly sarcastic).

I'm sure Oli will have more in the near future.

PS - The first weekly "Game Night" at Brian, Colin and Jay's place was excellent last night. Well done, all.

A major award

For those A Christmas Story fans, you'll know that when I say I received a major award at work today, I mean a lamp in the shape of a fish-net-stockinged leg.

But lamp or no lamp, I did get an award at work today: The WOW Award.

I was doing work as usual at my desk when at 2pm a mass of 6 people with balloons, bells, flashy pins, a certificate and a photographer walked in whispering to me, "We're here for Angela. Where is she?" I told them I was me and then everything went into slow motion, like when a crime takes place or you're in a car accident.

Bells started ringing, a gold star balloon was thrust into my hand, I was pinned and handed a flashing light-up UIC star that can clip onto things, like an iPod shuffle. "You've received a WOW Award!!!" Co-workers from throughout the building, about 20, popped out of doorways and crowded around my desk. It seemes that everyone was hanging around waiting for this crew of dementedly happy people to come get me, I mean, award me. The award crew read the things that our director of development and my boss had written to nominate me, I made a few witty comments and then we ate cake. A photographer took my picture and a group shot for the UIC News. One of the assistant deans even came in on her day off with her husband and two kids just to witness this spectacle and give me a box of incredible chocolates. I wish I had pictures of this bizarre but very pleasant hour.

Lesson learned: If you work hard, someone just might give you a balloon and take your picture every couple years.

(I really did enjoy my co-workers' show of appreciation but couldn't help making that last obvious joke.)

Lily's 1st birthday pics

Some pictures from Lily's 1st birthday.
Colin's got some, as does Cassie and Jay. Check 'em out!

Depressingly honest feeling splurge

Sorry it's been so long...

Basically, on my end, work has been in a most ridiculous state of affairs. I haven’t read anyone’s blog in over two weeks (Gasp!).

I’ve had a problem with being over extended at work for a while. This problem is infinitely exacerbated by the fact that due to space and money constraints, I sit at the dean’s office front desk. There isn’t money for a receptionist, so I do that on top of everything else I do. Everyone walking past thinks I must just be checking emails from my pimply boyfriend because they think I have time to talk for hours, answer every question again to them personally even though I have created a website with the answers to those questions and emailed the link to everyone who needs that information, and that I know where anyone in the building is at any point on any day. Anger and frustration.

On January 31 things compounded when one of our professors found out that a certain non-for-profit was going out of business and had several databases of information on tax increment finances in Chicago over the last couple decades. Some of this info could a) be quite valuable to her research and b) be quite damaging to a certain mayor we all love and adore. The non-for-profit would go out of business on Feb 1 and the info would probably fall out of public hands. Our college recruited the UIC Library and College of Education to help and we had a day to get a behemoth like the University of Illinois to cut and deliver a check so we could get and protect the goods in the most legal way possible. Despite fancy learning, professors and deans don't know how to buy things through the uni system (understandably, they are doing other things) and weren’t sure of how to keep this all legal, so I spent 9 hours making magic (a legal $7000 check) happen. That was good, but then yielded a week of follow-up work in addition to my regular work and the 3 wasted hours a day that I spend answering random questions that people ask simply because as they walk by my desk they think, “Hey, maybe Angela knows.” The problem is, I often do know, so they just keep asking. If I only had a door.

I'm glad we've managed to protect state data from the hands of politicians and shady organizations that might inherit it, but mate, I am tired. Work is killing me.

In addition to this drama, I keep getting larger and larger projects handed to me while still having to take care of everyday building things (like the heat in our building not working today and every one of 700 employees coming to my desk and asking "What's up?" because the email didn’t say enough.) I am desperately trying to put together the monthly college newsletter and a new PhD student guide, prepare for the monthly meetings I run, work with a graphic designer to redo the signage in the entire building, and fix the little problem UIC has of not properly keeping track of how much grant money they’ve been awarded in the last fiscal years…It doesn’t help that my college has lost major administrative big-wigs, shifted staff, and have a few employees who no one wants to give certain tasks to. Speaking of certain employees, if I have to listen to another negative comment about all the reasons why he can’t do his job well, I just don’t know what I’ll do. The reason I can’t do my job efficiently is because I’m doing his job, too, and he makes exactly twice what I make. Twice.

From the time I get here at 7am to when I leave at 4pm (I have an hour class in there somewhere), my mind is racing and I am operating on hyper drive. Trying to remember what I am working on, each thing every person asks me to find out as they go by, where I left off in my project before I was interrupted. I often am in the position of racing to complete or fix something before a donor or UofI administrator arrives because of the employee described above or because of other factors. While I am repeatedly complimented on my good work and told that I am appreciated, it can just be too much. Add in working on Oli’s immigration paperwork, keeping track of our immunizations, trying to figure out what our health insurance situation will be in Europe, writing thank-you notes, picking up prescriptions, going to class, doing my homework, receiving calls from my family, and I think you get the idea that my body, brain and soul are being fried on a daily basis.

Frankly, if one more person comes by my desk today and asks me something in a tone that says, “My getting this information is so much more important than anything else is to anyone else in this world, and I don’t care that you’re on the phone or hurriedly writing a memo or figuring out a student’s immigration paperwork,” well, I might just leave and go home and play with Lily and Oli.

Because at the end of the day, that’s what this is about.

I have a great boss who doesn’t want to see me overwhelmed, who I can vent these frustrations to and can work out real solutions with, but at the end of the day, even though I know our college does great work for its students and various communities throughout the city and world, I just don’t care as much about anything here as I do about everything at home.

I want to write thank-you notes to people who gave Lily birthday presents and write thoughtful messages in them and not see them as a chore. I like corresponding with people in a thoughtful way and I wish everyone from our wedding had received a thank-you but the fact of the matter is there wasn’t time for me to do it. I want to go to the grocery store with Lily and pick out healthy food and ask Oli’s mom and my dad how they make the things they make that are so delicious and good for Seeley bodies. Then I want to make those things, and even though they’ll probably suck the first time, I want to try again! Most importantly, I want to be a bigger part of Lily’s development. I only see her 2 hours a day on weekdays. That is ridiculous. What kind of world is this where parents only see their children 2 hours a day and that’s ok? How do single parents do it? How do the world’s working parents do it and not cry all the time from being sad and away from their babies? Even though I know I do well with Lily and we have a great bond, I feel like I don't have enough time to be a good mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, etc.

I am overwhelmed with the lack of time adulthood has brought with it. I’ve become worse than ever at taking care of myself and I’ve been eating terrible foods, foods that I would never have thought of having when I had first returned from Barcelona. But my body no longer craves the fruits, veg and whole grains it used to; now it wants doughnuts and Little Debbie peanut-butter bars. I feel extremely distant from my family. Even though they only live an hour away, there isn’t time on weekday evenings for us to visit because rush-hour traffic turns an hour drive into a two-hour one. On weekends, we’re all busy and can hardly coordinate a day to spend together, and when we do, we all just sit at home and find it difficult to connect, but at least they get to see Lily play. I love my family and I miss them and I want to be able to do things together outside of the home so they can actually get to know Lily, and we can actually feel like people who know each other, not just people related by blood.

Oli and I had a long conversation last night after Lily’s fantastic friend birthday party and today I had a good think on the train to work. I’m probably going to have to just get through work until July 27, but otherwise, I need to prioritize. Oli says I should focus only on eating and sleeping, but I think I have to add spending meaningful time with family to that list of extreme priorities. As far as friends go, I think that’s a highlight of life right now. Sunday mornings at Small Bar are great for us Seeleys and everyone has been so great about Lily’s b-day and in general, we just have a lovely group of friends who take care of each other. It will be hard to move away, but I think many are planning moves and other lives in the next few years and we should probably just enjoy this moment of togetherness while it lasts.

Anyway, beyond all that, I think I have a fun little project I’ve come up with that will help with the family thing. Perhaps I will have something to show y’all in a few weeks. Or maybe I will end up spending all my time on eating and sleeping and this little idea will get pushed to the wayside for a while. Either way, I’m sure you’ll know what’s happening in this brain and body of mine if you tune in here from time to time. In the meantime, know that I want to quit my job.

Awesome

“Have a nice day,” the Starbucks lady told me as she handed me my peppermint hot chocolate.

“You too,” I said through a broad smile as I turned to leave and took a big first sip, scalding the interior of my mouth beyond recognition.

Ingerland

This is part 1 and 2 of the video manifestation of our journey to England.
Enjoy.

Half a World Away - Part 1



Formula Lily - Part 2

Hey, we went skiing and snowboarding (with sound)

Yeah. That's what we did over the weekend...with Janice.

We went to Devil's Head in Wisconsin. It was fun, there was decent snow and it was a sunny not-too-cold day on Saturday. There was night skiing, which we partook of. Plus, the best band of men over 40 played at the lodge in the evening. They opened with Margaritaville, and went unabashedly through a lineup that included Play That Funky Music White Boy and a new hip version of Brown-Eyed Girl. Wow.

On Sunday, we awoke to a blizzard of powder. Unfortunately, we had to get back to Chicago, so instead of skiing and snowboarding in it, we had to drive in it. I skidded for a ridiculously long time down a side street and finally over the curb onto someone's lawn. No one was around so Janice and Oli just laughed at me and I just got grumpy. Later I laughed, too. It was funny.

Footage and photos to come, I'm sure.

PS - Lily is being the most hilarious and loveable kid lately. She's gives hugs and tells nonsense stories. Next Friday she'll be one!

By the way...*updated*

Lily now walks freely around our apartment and says "daddy," "uh-oh," and "light."

She understands what light is rather well but she calls both Oli and me "daddy," which I will most happily accept for the time being. I feel pretty honored every time she points at me and says "daddy" because it means I stick out as something worth naming among the menagerie of things she encounters every day :)

Oli, I encourage you to post some walking footage. *I posted 2 vids*

Come by and see her some time if you can.

iPuke

Thank you again Janice for yet another lovely lily gift; these are the photos you've been dying for.

Lily's 3 weeks in the UK heralded in a new phase of being and these shots examine her new more capable and powerful self. The images confront the viewer with a strange juxtaposition; near-identical shots, each a unique portrait of child in constant flux, presented in an order that opposes the conventional chronology found in similar works. This is Lily at her most beautiful, and contrastly, her most monstrous.

Time warp

Well, Oli and Lily come home tonight. According to the BA website, their flight is running late and will arrive at 18:51 instead of 18:10. Three hours until I’m a wife and mother again.

The last week has been strange and telltale.

What have I done?

Everything I used to do in college.

I remember once in the first weeks we were in Barcelona, a few days after our course had finished, Oli and I went to Dunkin Donuts on the Ramblas, got a half dozen and coffee, walked down the street smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, and went to an English pub to watch England vs. Wales and share our doughnuts. On that walk we discussed how incredible it is that no matter where you are in the world, you always end up doing the same things and you find out what you’re really made of. Evidently, we’re made of D&D, coffee, smoke and football.

Now that Brian, Colin and Jay have moved from college-town Little Italy to cool-but-not-quite-Wicker-Park-cool Logan Square, it’s all fun and games again. Just as in the old days, I spent Thursday evening after work with Colin, Brian, Jay and Kevin. Unlike old times, we went grocery shopping for healthy food, I made starters consisting of prosciutto and brie and Brian made a healthy dinner, including a delicious salad involving nuts. I passed out at like 10 o’clock due to time-change-confusion, but really, that just made it even more like the old days.

Friday night Brian and I went out for coffee. Brian was a little tipsy (he’s on his month-long furlough from the Force) and we talked about family and life...same old same old, in the best possible way. The only differences from three years ago were that I don’t chain smoke anymore and he’s dating a 36-year-old….

Monday I decided not to go to work as I had a relapse of the “lurgy” or stomach virus on Sunday night and I figured a) I shouldn’t infect my coworkers with what has proven to be a potent communicable virus and b) I should cook several dishes for Lily and Oli to have upon their arrival in the US…hopefully I didn’t get germs in the batter. I finished cooking by noon and then I took advantage of the fact that Kevin doesn’t work to hang out with him. We looked through my CD collection since I’m going to be selling most of it, considered watching Curb Your Enthusiasm season 5, and went to Starbucks…..anything seem familiar here?

And finally, Tuesday night was spent out with Janice and her roommate Melissa at Innertown Pub. As per usual, Janice bought me an extra round beyond what I had expected to drink and we discussed a certain individual that you all know the name of but that I cannot mention here just in case s/he somehow reads this blog. I find her love-life escapades thrilling now since I no longer have stories that involve wondering if someone likes me or not.

Interestingly a guy I used to see named Tom was there and it was fun to answer his question, “What’s going on?” with “Well, I had a baby and got married.” Actually, I believe I said, “I got married and had a baby,” but who’s keeping track? He actually asked me “Really?” to check that I wasn’t joking and then was very sweet about it all and even asked if I was happy.

So, it’s been a wander down old-habit lane and an interesting opportunity to compare Me now to Me three years ago. When I hear about how my friends hit on people or get hit on, I have this sense now that I would be really confident and have a lot of fun if I were to be back on the dating market. Of course that is because I am secure and confident in having a husband who is my best friend. But clearly certain insecurities that I thought I had vanquished are still kicking around; they just aren’t tested as often. I was seriously nervous to talk to Tom, which after contemplation, I realize was not due to the “does he like me” nerves, but rather, due to the fact that I was embarrassed about how I had acted when we were seeing each other. I was going through a psycho drunk rebound phase then and our relationship ended with me getting angry on the phone because he was brushing me off saying he wouldn’t have time to hang out for a few weeks. I ended the conversation with, “Great. I’ll put that in my planner.” He giggled thinking I was joking and then my silence told him otherwise. He said, “Ok, talk to you later,” and that was that. We did talk a couple months later right before I went to Spain, and that was pretty civilized. Anyway, it was interesting to get butterflies in my stomach.

With friends, we still all love nothing more than to talk about one another, whether the person in question is in the room or not, but that’s been ongoing even when I am living the mommy life. Otherwise, I think I and most of our friends are much nicer people now, greatly due to some increased confidence. I went through a long phase of thinking most of my friends had everything way more together than I did, so I would toss out hurtful comments as jokes, thinking that they would only be taken as jokes by my superhuman friends. Alas, I think we all recognize that we love and need each other and are needed and I appreciate the level of intimacy without rancor that we’ve cultivated. Well done, friends.

So, I’ve enjoyed this little lapse into college life but to be honest, I miss my family and want to snuggle them very badly. I look forward to the little flutter I’ll get in my belly as I wait to see Oli and the dorky noises I’ll make at Lily.

On top of it all, my inkling that family life has changed me for the better has been confirmed. I feel like Lily makes me get my priorities straight. My time and my life are more valuable with her around. As I consider the food she eats, how to get her exercise, how to stimulate her mind, what is safe, what isn’t but is a good experience, and what is neither safe nor a good experience, I consider how these things relate to me as well. Oli and I often say that if Lily hadn’t happened we’d have continued traveling, working and partying. A nice combo, but not probably the best for getting all one could out of the travel experience. With her, I feel that we’re not giving up any part of our dreams, but rather, that we’ve been made to evaluate how to make our dreams viable worthwhile realities.

All in all, an excellent week for the soul.

Lily in print

Lily was featured in the January/February 2007 issue of the UIC Alumni Magazine.

Here she is in a photo Oli took of her wearing a "future UIC alumnus" bib. Click on the image to see it close up.

If having her picture in a magazine makes me this proud, how will I feel when she actually does something?

Child therapy

When Jacob gets really upset and yells at my sister and brother-in-law, they get down on their knees and tell him to calm down and breathe in good thoughts and breathe out bad thoughts.

The other day Jacob got angry at some of his toys and tried this on his own. He came in to my sister’s room thereafter and said, “Mom, I think there’s something wrong with my body. I’m trying to breathe in good thoughts and breathe out bad thoughts, but I can only breathe in bad thoughts and breathe out bad thoughts. Is there something wrong with my body?”

As if this weren’t funny enough, the next day when my sister said it was 8:30pm and time for bed, Jacob started yelling, “You’re making bad thoughts! You’re lying about the time.”

When my mom pointed out that her phone also said 8:30, Jacob just laughed and said, “You’re just a maker-upper, too, Ya-ya.”

Crazy.

I'm back

Hiya. I'm back from the Old World. Oli and Lily are still there until next Wednesday, so until then I'll be partying.....

Actually, I'll be doing some organizing 'round the house and starting on some New Year's Resolutions:
Continuing to learn to knit
Learning to sew
Writing a book (like everyone else our age)

We spent three days in Barcelona and had a great relaxing time. Lily stayed with Oli's parents those days. We had a lot we wanted to do but each day something kind of came up and was so nice that we shed our plans and just went with the flow. On the first night we thought we'd go out partying but were so tired and not into it that we went out for tapas at 9, made a meal of it, then took a looong walk round the dark city, stopping for a coffee in our infamous Glaciar bar in Plaza Real. No one was around at all because everyone was busy with the holiday...and because no one goes out until midnight normally. We went back to our friend's place, played some play station 2 football, and called it a night.

On day 2 we met up with my friend Noelia and spent most of the afternoon snacking, walking, eating and talking. She had some great advice about living in and around Barcelona and also had some fun toys for Lily. We also learned that Spanish people use the term Murphy's Law....El Ley del Murfi. Day 3 we finally checked out the sun roof on our friend Timo's place and realized it was amazing....overlooking the city, warm morning sun with a cool "winter" breeze. We spent several hours eating breakfast and chilling up there before making our way out to Castelldefells (the city, not the beach), which we realized is a hell hole we do not want to live in.

Beyond that, Megan and Marty made it out to Buckleigh House (the Seeley home) for Christmas Day and stayed over for a couple nights, so they got to take part in the Boxing Day tradition of getting pissed. It was really great to see them and it's a shame we didn't get to meet up for New Year's.

On the 31st Oli went and played a football match in the rain with his bros and some other people. Lily and I went to watch and Lily had fun kicking an orange around an adjacent pitch. She made 5 goals. That night we stayed in Oli's hometown Godalming, avoiding the trek to London, and had a great night out with the Milford Kru. By the bye, Godalming is where The Holiday was filmed, and we rang in the New Year on the very street where Cameron Diaz and Jack Black's drama unfolds in the film.....impressive, no?

Otherwise, it was wonderful to see Lily and her cousin Hannah Kim together. They were very wiley pals, working out ways to mess with the washing machine and to get into the boos cupboard. Naughty babies.

And finally, thanks to Lisa and Ray for taking care of us :) We ate like kings and queens as usual. We do, however, need a Balderdash rematch so I can defend my title.

Oli has the camera in the UK still, so if he reads this and has the time, maybe he can post photos.....

Let the games begin

We stayed in a hotel downtown overnight on Saturday with my sister and her family after a night taking in the lights, the Marshall Field's/Macy's Mary Poppins window display, the German Christkindl market and doing a looong stroll down the Magnificent Mile. Here's an afternoon shot from our hotel room window. We figured Simon and others kids would get a kick out of this view.


There was only a shower in the hotel room, so Lily got a bath in the sink.


Lily's first giant Christmas tree.

Santa made a stop by our place earlier in the day and left some stocking stuffers for my nephew and niece Jacob and Marisa, but he also left a note explaining that he has mistakenly delivered some of their presents to England. So we offered to pick those up for them.

We're off Tuesday evening to continue our holiday adventures...

Dates

It's official.

We're leaving for the UK on Tuesday, December 19th in the evening and getting there on Wednesday, December 20th in the morning.

We're going to Barcelona on the 22, 23 and 24.

I'm returning to Chicago on January 3 and Oli and Lily will return a week later (still need to change their tickets).

Excitingly, Mendy and Dave are in town from London right this moment (Mendy is a friend who also married a Britisher and moved away to London a few years ago) . They stopped by ours last night with Colin and Jay and met our girl Lily. They will be back in London for New Years, so perhaps the four of us will all catch up with Marty and Megan and the Milford Kru and it will be an event worth remembering for at least three weeks.

!

Oli at 21 dancing in Marseille.

We were in Marseille, there were some Peruvian people playing instruments, and someone thought it would be funny to dance in front of them. What a loser.

Lily Photo Fun

ENGLAND !

Oliver's permanent residence has been approved. This means we will be in England for Christmas (most likely). The email I got last night says that it can take up to 30 days for him to receive the green card at home, but they said the same thing about the work permit and we got it in under a week.

Our scheduled departure is on Tuesday, December 19, which means we get to England on the 20th. If we don't get the card in time, we'll reschedule for a week or two later.

I was getting pretty excited to spend New Years with everyone here, so don't think we won't be missing you guys, but I think everyone can understand our excitement to go see Lily's grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, and Oli's friends and to be in a country that is a lot warmer than Chicago is right now. Brrr.

Humorously, I just sent off a $170 check to Homeland Security yesterday to get an expedited travel document so we could make it to the UK for Christmas. All day yesterday I kept checking my email to see if his perm res would miraculously get approved and I wouldn't have to send this new application. At 4pm I finally gave in and next-day aired it to California. They sent me the approval notice by email at 5:42 pm and I opened it first thing this morning. I almost choked on laughter when I opened my email this morning. My instincts were so right, but I don't mind that I ignored them and now have to clean up the mess of this new application because we'll be in England in just over a week.

England!

This one's for you, Sunday-night-football-watching men

Last night I stopped by Kevin Rooney's where he, Drogos and Jared were watching football. The commercial where all the college team mascots are chasing the heisman trophy came on. There are bears and other normal mascots running around and then there's this boulder-y thing. We wondered which mascot that could be and if it could represent the Ohio State Buckeyes. This question begged another: What is a Buckeye?

Answer:
A buckeye is a stinky nut that comes off of the Aesculus glabra Willdenow tree. See here for discussion.

Other answer:
The boulder-y thing does indeed represent said Buckeye and it looks like we weren't the only ones who had this question.

See parts one and two of the commercial for yourself.

Also, Drogos, we were right that Oklahoma's state motto is "The Sooner State;" thus, the U of OK team name.

Perhaps the funniest thing ever said

Two things:

1 - Good luck to Colin, Brian and Jay as they move to a new apartment today in one-foot-deep snow. Poor timing, but I hear the new place is great.

2 - Note the new tagline up top under "Lomo y Queso": More powerful than Skynet.

Megan Edith's brother Tyler was chatting with us at the Ediths' wedding and he told us a story about a nerdy friend who claimed to have created an artificial intelligence program that was "more powerful than Skynet." (Skynet was the computer network that took over the machines and the world in the Terminator series.)

Shakespeare told us that brevity is the soul of wit, and for many reasons, including its brevity and the way it blurs lines between fiction and reality, I seriously think the phrase "more powerful than Skynet," could be the funniest thing I've ever heard.

Who are those people?

New blogs in the menu over there, people:

Atrocity Road
Sam “I think he lives in Bristol” Allen
A Britisher, he’s so deeply into that Indonesian-Dub-fusion scene that he’s formed an alter ego named Able DJ, which if I may say so, is a pretty good alter ego to have. I don’t know much about what he does, but if you want to know if the DJ was Able (best pun ever) to score after the last “mashup,” or if you like viewing photos from the urban Anglo environ, this is your blog, mate.

Charity and politics

ABC's 20/20 did some amazing journalistic investigation last night for their dazzling piece on 'Who gives and who doesn't?' about how different social groups give money. The show seemed to be glorifying the good nature of conservatives and the religious, whilst being critical of the secular and liberal middle-class. Or maybe that’s simply what the data suggests.

Apparently, middle-class liberals, who don't go to church, who live in San Francisco, who earn more money than their rural, church-going conservative counterparts, who profess to 'care' so much about charitable causes, give less than the poor, church-going conservatives. Liberals are also less likely to give blood. And it's 24 red states (from the last election), which make up the most generous 25 states in America for donating an above-average amount of their income.

Arthur Brooks, the author of "Who Really Cares”, had this to say:
"You find that people who believe it's the government's job to make incomes more equal, are far less likely to give their money away," In fact, people who disagree with the statement, "The government has a basic responsibility to take care of the people who can't take care of themselves," are 27 percent more likely to give to charity.

I don’t personally like giving money to charities because they just end up spending it on drugs.

Also shaken

I'm a middle-aged woman, evidently.

Oli and I went to go see Casino Royale last week and in the words of Martha Matters, yowza! I've been day-dreaming about Daniel Craig/James Bond ever since. Plus, I want to be a spy now. It's one of those movies that really wraps you up in its world, and now here I am, thinking up ways Oli and I can get into espionage....and ways I can meet Daniel Craig.

Go see it; it's actually shot really well, has good characters, attempts to not degrade women, and has a great exchange that ends with James responding: "Skewered."

Oh, and one other thing, I really, really hated Batman Begins and somewhat resent Martha comparing these movies, but I'll let it slide because she dresses so well.

The internet is AMAZING!

I love this Age of Information. Anything and everything is possible. Friends in distant lands, answers to the day’s wonderings, books, images and music are but a double-click away.

This little gem allows me to watch films, documentaries and animation without Netflix, LimeWire or the telly. Nice.

But, seriously, I do believe that the Internet is the defining thing of our age, and I do think it’s more than about just getting quick-fix media-hits from the online syringe. I sometimes think of Wikipedia as a metaphor for the Internet. Both are fantastic resources because they are open-source and available for all to use, to edit and to create at no (or little) cost. Both serve as a barrier to ignorance and allow all to share in knowledge and information. It is for this reason that I believe free-internet access, preferably wi-fi, should be a right, not a privilege, for the people of the world.

God didn’t make men equal, the Internet did.

Holidays

Just some cute bits:

1. My nephew has been waiting for weeks to put up the Christmas decorations but my sister said not until the day after Thanksgiving. On November 1st, knowing this was the month of Thanksgiving, he said, "Can we just put up a little now? Like, a candle?" There is no arguing with the 5-year-old mind.

2. We decorated the Christmas tree at my parents' on the day after Thanksgiving (the kids got my sister to cave and put up their tree three days before). On about her 12th ornament, my niece Marisa hung it gently on the tree, gazed at it and sighed, "Ah, the first branch of Christmas." We stil are unsure of what they means, but it's a nice sentiment.

3. I'm set on getting mini radio-controlled cars for all of my family members for Christmas. I have visions of Grandma and her sister racing to the death while eating brownies and drinking egg nog. Oli is down with this idea but doesn't want to get one for every individual. I say, what man wouldn't give his left arm for a wife that wants to buy 30 rc cars?

Recent photos

Looking good on Thanksgiving Day, Lily is wearing:

*Body warmer/vest by Marisa Brown
*Velvet dress by YaYa and The Find
*Tights by Nana Lisa
*Shoes by Laura


Making a goofy face in the hallway

New Baby Lily photos at las fotos de oliver.

Stalking Janice

Happy belated birthday, Janice!

You're always such a good friend to us, taking Oli out to concerts, dragging us out of the house to play softball, buying stuff for Lily, making Angela jewelry. What does one do for such a friend on (or after) her birthday? Surely you don't just buy her bottles of hand lotion and bubble bath...

You stalk her for a day and make a movie about it.

Happy birthday, Love.
~ The Seeleys

**Note to viewers** - This video deviates from the usual 2-minute length. This is a 20-something minute film. We hope it's funny and wasn't just funny to us because we lived it. Enjoy!

What to take away from this presentation

We've been up all evening making food and preparing Oli's RVA presentation for tomorrow. We're exhausted and going a bit bonkers.

We've decided that the most important things for people to take away from a presentation on sexual assault are:
1. It is never the victim's fault.
2. It is never the victim's fault.
3. No smoking.

Huzzah patent holder

Hey -

Oli is convinced that the reason people in our Chicago social circle say "huzzah!" from time to time is because they heard him and his friends say it during the toast at our wedding. He thinks they invented it.

Please back me up and explain that many people in this world say "huzzah!" to be both unified and humorous at the same time.

Sorry Ol.

Star Wars Oli

First came the Star Wars Kid, then came approximately 106 immitations including Stephen Colbert's green sceen challenge. If you're interested in reading more on the Star Wars Kid phenomena then I recommend you read Megan's concise history.

Anyway, here is my effort. I hope you enjoy.

Urbana-Champaign

The C word

I was recently sitting around the apartment alone on a Saturday while Oli was at an RVA training and Lily was napping. Wow, an hour to myself. What do I do? I was sitting in the papasan chair and wondered if I should maybe read one of those books I had never read that were sitting on my bookshelf. I looked up, and there it was: Cunt.

I thought it would be a quick funny read about the origins of the C word and its meaning in our society and how we can “reclaim” it. My, how we love reclaiming things. I thought it would help me get thinking about feminist and female issues again. I realized that I haven’t been thinking about those and their impact on my and my family and friends’ lives very much lately.

But Cunt is so much more.

I bought the book, I’m sure, to be trendy and alternative. I know I bought it at Borders, though, so that immediately kills all hope of being alternative. But thank God I didn’t read this book before. I would not have been ready. I required several years of my mother’s yogi talk to prepare me for this book.

This book and its author give off vibes of big warm moms who cook yummy healthy food and know how to talk politics, earthy spirituality and sexuality, San Francisco, and much more. It makes me want to be home and not work and to put more time and thought into the food we make, and the way we care for our bodies, and the home we craft for ourselves, and the way we raise Lily as a girl and woman. It makes we want a kitchen filled with clay pots of herbs, quinoa (a la Laura Hartich), and things to sooth the soul. Basically, it makes me want to be what I like to call organi-mom….and more. The book is not specifically about these things, but this is how it has affected this reader.

The author (Inga Muscio) discusses etymology, history, taking control of one’s personal health, prostitution, sexual power, orgasms, acrimony among women, and so much more. It sounds like it’s all been said before in many a self-help book, but this is not a self-help book. Inga’s ability to reach into so many places (history, pop culture, politics, capitalism) and intelligently and humanly make arguments for why women (and the people in their lives) should be putting more thought into their own lives and bodies rather than running around and trusting what doctors and magazines and TV say, is just flat out good. G-o-o-d. Again, I defer to Laura Hartich who shunned doctors who didn’t listen to her and her feelings and intuitions about her own body.

Inga can be very slang-y and guru-y and hokey-pokey, but I can forgive her these things because her messages and information are just incredible. The resources she lists in the book and in the section at the back are amazing. Oli and I You-tubed some of her references last night and wow, information.

You may think, “Ah, Angela is entering that reading-woman-books phase again and she’ll listen to anything anyone with a vagina writes,” but all I can say is this book is good and women and non-women should read it with other women and non-women they know and talk about it and whatever it makes them think about.

I’m almost done, so you can borrow it if you want.

Inappropriate Children's TV

This is a show I used to watch when I was a little kid.

Election Day

During the days leading up to Election Day, I couldn't care less about politics (other than figuring out who I'm going to vote for). Then, when it arrives, I am suprised to remember how fantastic it is. I don't know why I forget how great Election Day is. But for whatever reason I'm always half-hearted until the actual day arrives, at which point I get all nervous to go vote (funny, no?). Then I go vote and I'm like, "Whoa, this is fun." Then I go home and turn on the TV and I'm like, "Man, this is really exciting!" And then Charlie Gibson and George Stephan-greekolas start talking and I f-ing lose it, as well as my grip on time and space and suddenly it's midnight and I'm exhausted from excitement and overload of intelligent conversation.

And then I wake up and run for the newspaper kiosk to see what happened during those hours of sleep. And that's fun, too.

Happy Day After Election Day, kids. From the looks of the other blogs in our sphere, y'all enjoyed it as much and even more than I did.

Walking Lily and Plasma Cars

Lily has begun standing without support for just a few moments and is destined to walk independently very soon. At the moment she is walking, or rampaging, with the assistance of her new crocadile walker device.

I, whilst shopping for the crocodile, found an incredible toy...

Happy birthday me!

Like the Queen of England (Huzzah, peace be upon her) I have two birthdays. One American and one English. I was born 11.06.81, which in England translates as the 11th of June; in American it's November the 6th.

Having only just discovered my birthday, no celebrations are planned. Gifts are welcome, however.

The Seeley Family.

Freedom Pumpkin

Unsure of what else to do on Halloween (beside watching Showgirls) I decided to paint the stars and stripes onto a pumpkin.