@mattlogelin Ugh. . . although some of the best bad movies I’ve ever seen were viewed while up with a baby at 3am.
Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
@mattlogelin Ugh. . . although…
Thursday, March 5th, 2009Intrigued by the fact that Soc…
Thursday, March 5th, 2009Intrigued by the fact that Social Networking me appears more interesting than IRL me.
Experiment in not using comput…
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Experiment in not using computer for the bulk of the morning successful.
My master plan is not coming t…
Thursday, February 26th, 2009My master plan is not coming together quite as I had planned.
@InsidePerimeter My husband sa…
Thursday, February 26th, 2009@InsidePerimeter My husband saw them in LA recently – thought they were boring.
Thanks, CNN
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009I had about ten minutes to check the news this morning. Some very important news-related items learned this morning:
1 clip from The Daily Show, making fun of the dire straits we are in according to Obama’s last speech. (For those who don’t understand, that is basically the news showing a clip of a man who makes his living spoofing the news.)
1 clip on how more Americans are going to bartending school in this economy.
1 squirrel drinking a Molson out of a can.
Thanks, CNN.
Letting Go
Monday, February 9th, 2009Last week, after weeks of being sick, and missing workouts, and just generally getting behind in my training for the half-marathon in March, I was getting downright depressed. I think it was a combination of not working out regularly (loss of endorphins), not feeling good, along with the other stresses of parenthood, work, and home. I was just blue. There were a few times I didn’t really want to get out of bed, or if I did, then I would just want to lay on the couch. I could feel depression sucking everything good out of my life. I know depression – I have been depressed, and I have dealt with depression in those I love. I recognized the signs. I also recognized that even when you recognize the signs, you don’t just snap out of it and feel better. I am lucky that I have only one time been so depressed that I just wanted to give up, and when I couldn’t pull myself out of it.
In the course of all this, I realized that one of the problems was me beating myself up for having gotten behind in my training. I was at the point where i didn’t feel like I could ever catch up, and that I would do worse than my first race or worse, injure myself trying to play catch up too fast.
I was drying my hair, and I made an executive decision. I would just forget about the race in March.
It was like a weight was lifted. Here i was beating myself up about not meeting a goal that I had put on myself. No one else had chosen that goal for me; I chose it for myself, and all the guilt I felt was my very own doing. Why would I do this to myself? The answer to the problem was right in front of me. I just let it go.
So, i scrapped the idea of doing that half. There will be tons others. And i turned around and decided to start small again, pick a 5k that is coming up soon, just to keep me honest, and pick a Sprint Triathlon that I want to do, and start training for that.
I feel a hundred times better. I am lucky that my depression was situational, and I could fix it. And taking one thing off my plate really did solve the problem.
I know I have highly suggested picking goals and meeting them. It gives me great joy and power to pick a goal and follow through with it. But sometimes, i think the harder lesson for me is the one about learning when to let go, when to drop one of the many balls I juggle.
I’m still going to be a little sad come March when everyone is running, though.
The Most Powerful Thing I Read Last Year
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009I read a pretty good amount, and watch some sappy movies, and listen to a lot of moving music. Nothing moved me like the day that I read this guy’s blog last year. I can’t remember how I came across it, but since then, his readership has spread like wildfire. He and his daughter were even in People magazine recently.
I have been meaning to mention it on Dogwood Girl, because I think about him, and his wife, and his daughter every single day. It reminds me that when i am having a crappy day, I should shut the fuck up. And on days like today’s post, it reminds me how very lucky I am.
He is really amazing, and at the same time, so very real. His favorite band is the Silver Jews. He loves his robot. He dresses his daughter in a shirt that reads, “Your Favorite Band Sucks.” He says “fuck” a lot. He could be me, or you. There, but for the grace of God, go all of us.
Actually, if you have never read it before, you should start here. But get the hankies ready. I haven’t seen anything so torturously beautiful and nightmarish in ages. I hope that i will never know his grief or the bittersweet feeling he must get every time he looks at his daughter. I hope that I never forget that it could be me.
Dear Teacher, Happy Valentine’s Day.
Monday, February 2nd, 2009Everyone knows that i have some serious doubts about our public education system in Georgia. I just don’t have a lot of faith in it, but that is based mostly on my own experience as a Georgia student over. . . well, many years ago now. I definitely felt that I had to give it a try, and see how my kids would fare at the elementary school we have chosen. So far, i am mostly happy with the school – Parent involvement is high, there do not seem to be any discipline issues of note, and there has been zero violence at the school. That being said, when I do post my thoughts on Dogwood Girl, it will most likely be something negative, as the impetus for my posts is usually what i term Pissed-Off-edness.
So, the latest installment: Valentine’s Day is coming up. Remember Valentine’s Day? Yep, it was pretty horrible back in school. All those people, making it very clear who is popular and who isn’t, all in glaring red, pink, white and lacy detail. But go back farther. Yep, to Pre-K and Kindergarten. Even first grade. Before cliques. Before Mean Girls and Queen Bees. Before Dumb Boys who always like the same predictable bubbly blonde. . . Yeah, you are right. That last part never existed. They always like the blonde. Even my own traitorous man cub likes the predictable blonde chick.
I digress and make this about me. This is not about me, this is about Valentine’s Day and public school education.
I asked the teacher how the children could prepare for Valentine’s Day at school. Would they need to make their own Valentine’s day box? No. But she did request that they not address their Valentines to their friends. They should just sign their name to the cards. It would make it easier that way.
Huh? So, basically, they (the teachers?) don’t want to deal with the hassle of making sure that the right Valentine gets to the right kid. Is it just me, or is that dumb as Paula Abdul? (It is probably me. I did get my period for Groundhog Day, which can make one a little pissy.)
How does it make sense to dissuade the kids from writing their friends’ names on the Valentine’s Day cards? Seems to me that 20 four-and-five year olds spending an evening sitting with their parents and learning to write out the letters in each of their friends’ names might be a good exercise: In penmanship, in letter recognition, in spelling, in spending time with their parents in one-on-one instruction, in thoughtfulness, and in good manners!
I can see that it could be a little time-consuming to go through all the cards and make sure they get to the correct student when most of the kids can’t read. But mightn’t that be a decent teaching exercise? And not to make this all about my kid, because I realize different kids are at different levels, but my kid can read, write, and spell. This is an awesome activity for my kid’s reading and writing level. Should my kid be brought down to the level of other kids who can’t, just because it might be a little extra work for the educators? (Which it wouldn’t, because my kid could totally match up his friend’s name on the card with the same name on their little mailbox.)
Yeah, you guessed it. We are addressing our Valentine’s Day cards. I’m not going to dumb down an everyday task, something that will teach my child, just because it will make his teacher’s life easier at the expense of common sense and etiquette.
Signed,
Bitch Mother
Five Adjectives
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008I’ve thought about the “what five words describe you best?” question often, but never remember to blog about it. Then I read Pioneer Woman’s post Five Adjectives and was reminded. Except that she allows nouns also, which to me kind of changes the nature of the question, so I will do one of each: Five Adjectives and Five Nouns that best describe me.
Five Adjectives
Loyal
Honest
Complaining
Independent
Questioning
Five Nouns
Daughter
Sister
Mother
Wife
Thinker
What are your five? Better yet, do you see my five nouns and adjectives as something different? Because, you know, it’s all about me.