My feet hurt

Today was one of those days that felt, well, endless. It started when the road I usually take to get to Lucy’s school was closed due to construction. That meant we had to go all the way to the end of the street and take a left onto Washington, which is never fun at that time of day. Then, we come up the hill to the school, and there’s a garbage truck in the middle of the road. Not picking up garbage, mind you. Just parked. In the middle of the road. 

I probably would have had more of a conniption fit if it weren’t for Will’s exclaimed, “Again?! Everything today is too slow!” (I swear that he’s saying these things.)

Um, yep. That’s what I was going to say. (Except with me there would have been swear words involved.)

After a few minutes, I decided to try and make it through the space between the garbage truck and the parked car. Thankfully, I judged correctly and didn’t hit either one. (Considering that Will still occasionally tells me not to ‘bump’ anything when I’m driving, can you imagine? I never would have heard the end of that.) With the exception of the sad ‘Aren’t you going to come in, Mommy?’ from Lucy, drop-off went fine. Will’s drop off was surprisingly quick, so I was well on my way thinking that, despite the delays already, I was actually going to get in earlier than expected today and would have so much time to get done all the necessary things before the meetings started. 

Ha. Ha! I tell you.

The phone rang as I was pulling up to Harvard and Comm. As I answered, I was registering that there were a heck of a lot of sirens flashing up ahead, and what looked like a fair amount of helicopters hovering overhead. It was Kelley, telling me there was a major accident on Comm Ave and I should take Beacon instead. I was literally seconds away from being too late to turn off, but I made the hard right onto Harvard. Thanks to the many other people doing the same, and the fact that this is one of the more major intersections on my commute, well, it took me quite a bit of time to go less than a mile. I turned off on the side roads as soon as possible, but that wasn’t much better, since just about everyone else in the world did the same thing. Every stop sign had a minimum of 20 cars backed up behind it. Sigh. What was that about getting to work early?

Of course, the flip side of that was that I wasn’t involved in a fiery mess. (See below for the picture from the Channel 4 website — they actually have video of the explosion at http://wbztv.com/local/brighton.crash.allston.2.718738.html. There’s more coverage on the Boston Herald site at: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1092670.)  

Amazingly, no one was hurt. Still, I’m sure we can all agree that being late to work is a much better option.

***

As usual, work today was largely meetings. My new m.o. these days is to try and schedule some of these as walking meetings. Jeanne was game, so, rather than sit in one of our offices for our meeting, we did it while walking around the Fenway. It was raining, but warm, so this was doubly perfect for me; plus, we had some really great conversation. It was definitely as productive — if not more than — our meetings usually are. So, 40 minutes of brisk walking — not bad.

Then, I’d been planning on doing the same with Linnea. She was out sick today, though, so I went ahead and did it on my own. At the same time, I thought I’d drop off something for one of our adjuncts who works at BU. Unfortunately, I misjudged where her building was, so rather than a medium-long walk to Kenmore, it was a long-long walk to the BU bridge. It took me an hour to do the round trip, which I’m thinking was about three miles, considering my pace. At least it was my lunch hour, so it didn’t take time away from work. Man, am I feeling it now, though.

On top of that, tonight was Science Night at Lucy’s school. They do a really great job with it, and it was packed. Will hung out with Conal for the most part, while Kelley helped sell t-shirts for the parent council. I spent the evening trailing Lucy and her friends around. 

This is our third year doing it, and it’s quite amazing to think about how she’s grown in that time. Watching her with Siobhan, in particular, was pretty cool. Not that she was ever a shrinking violet or anything, but seeing her now — she’s just so at home. I love watching these kids together. Lucy and Siobhan and Ruth and Matthew. They’re so great, making their bookmarks and watching the slideshow and holding the snakes (blech, by the way). It was exhausting, standing for two hours straight after all the walking I did today; it was worth it, though. 

I’m sore already, and my eyes want to shut. I have some emails to read, though, and I want to get some writing done. (One of the fringe benefits of all the traffic this morning was that there was some major writing time while I sat at all the stoplights! Yay!) It’s possible that I will be physically unable to do this, however. I guess we’ll have to see. 

 

 

 

 

More links to explore

From January 5-12 Neat New Stuff newsletter

100+ Ways to Organize Your Life
http://mashable.com/2007/10/26/100-ways-to-organize-life/

A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tutorial_sites.php

 

 

The Sunday Feeling

I hate that Sunday feeling. I especially hate it when it is not a Sunday night. I’ve been sitting here for several hours, kind of checking email, kind of thinking about all the things I need to do, and kind of thinking I should just power down and relax in order to get rejuvenated. If only I didn’t have yet another day packed full of meetings…

At dinner, Will told me how Libby told him that a cow lives next door to her house. (A black baby cow, no less.) At first, he said, he didn’t believe her. He didn’t believe that there was a cow next to her house. But then, he said, “I asked my brain and my brain said that it was true. So now I believe her.”

Yes, well…

So maybe I should take a page out of Will’s book and tell my brain not to worry about all the things and instead just get them done. Hear that, brain? What are you waiting for?

 

Busy weekend

Dinner with a friend, Freedom Trail, and two movies - oh my!

Friday night, Brid and I had dinner at the Border. It was sad not to do the regular dinner with the family, but nice to have dinner with a friend. Adult conversation — not a bad thing.

Saturday, we all took a trip to the North End with Conal. He’s been wanting to show Lucy and Will some of the Freedom Trail things now that they’re big enough to appreciate it a bit more. With the exception of not preparing well and putting Will in boots, it was an excellent day. Actually, it was excellent anyway, but it would have been nice not to be worried so much about him jumping in the puddles. I believe in jumping in puddles (when the stomping doesn’t throw muddy water in other peoples’ directions, of course), but with Will’s cough being back, every puddle seemed like a step closer to another hospital trip. When, ten minutes after getting out of the car Will said that his socks were wet thanks to a particularly deep puddle, well, all I could think was: pneumonia, here we come. (Happily, it’s Sunday night now, and he doesn’t seem any worse for the wear, so we’ll knock on wood that everything’s fine.)

We got some pizza - yummy, Brooklyn-ish pizza! - before heading over to the Paul Revere house. It wasn’t quite as substantial as I had expected, but it was definitely interesting. We saw a silversmithing demonstration (”Can we leave now, Mommy?” Will kept saying), and I liked seeing the kitchen gardens. It would have been nice to have a better understanding of the context of the site — if it was really that big, how the houses related to each other — although, to be honest, it could have been there and I just missed it. Lucy and Will are bigger; doesn’t mean that they can sustain their interest for much longer than 15 or 20 minutes, though.

From the Paul Revere house, we walked over to North Church. More puddles, a little bit of complaining, a lot of pestering about hitting every gift shop along the way. We managed to avoid too many complications, though, and got to the church. I didn’t realize it would be such a nice walk — there’s a fairly big plaza that I hadn’t expected. If it had been a nicer day, it would have been a nice place to hang out for longer. As it was, it was good to be able to let Lucy and Will run a bit and, yes, splash. We threw some pennies into the fountain, then got to the church.

It was packed! I was surprised at how much so. It also felt wrong to have a church be so, well, noisy. People just walking up and down the aisle willy-nilly. It reminded me of the Sistine Chapel — something that should have been quiet and peaceful, and yet would put a bustling, busy market to shame. I took Will out while Kelley, Lucy, and Conal stayed to look a little more. Will and I found this tucked away garden (St. Francis of Assisi, I think), which I could have stayed in for days. I don’t have my pictures downloaded yet, but when I do, I’ll post them. It’s probably not a secret place or anything, but it felt like we’d stumbled across a hidden gem.

From the church, we went back to the car via Mike’s Pastries. To be honest, I’m not sure why I’m willing to put up with the crowds and the rude counter people. It’s not like it’s the best bakery I’ve ever been to. There’s something awesome about the endless display of cookies, though. It was a nice end to that portion of the day.

On our way home, Jean called and — thank you, Jean! — she was able to babysit so Kelley and I headed out to the movies. We saw “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” which was pretty awesome. Exactly the right movie for my mood. The perfect amount of light and not. That one’s a keeper. It was actually our first movie of the weekend. Kelley had tickets for this afternoon’s game. We’re getting old, though, and neither one of us was really interested in sitting out in the cold and rain. Our neighbors were happy to take the tickets, and we were happy to take advantage of the fact that we had a babysitter lined up and went to a matinee. This one was “Iron Man” and it was another good choice. Of the two, I liked Sarah Marshall better, but Iron Man wasn’t bad at all. It was a little more violent than I like (although not nearly as violent as most things out there); seeing as it was a about a weapons dealer, though, it could have been much worse. Robert Downey, Jr. was the perfect choice for the lead, and it was nice to see Clark Gregg (I think that’s his name) show up as well.

There are actually a bunch of movies that are coming out that I’d like to see. One coming out every weekend for the next month, it seems. Next up, (hopefully) is Baby Mama. If Camilla wants to see it, then I’m golden. Oh, wait, but I’m counting on her for Made of Honor. Hmmm. We’ll have to see.

 

A few links I picked up during the day

How to Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday
http://zenhabits.net/2008/02/17-unbeatable-ways-to-create-a-peaceful-relaxed-workday/

Annoyed Librarian
http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com/

The Liminal Librarian (Rachel Singer Gordon)
http://www.lisjobs.com/blog/

Salon: “What Every Freelancer Should Know”
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/04/15/freelance/

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s gonna be a long night

Will hasn’t stopped coughing since he went to bed. So far, it isn’t that blood-chilling croupy cough. At the same time, it’s so tight that I can’t breathe from all the way down here. Having Lucy call down every few minutes to tell me he was coughing didn’t help. It took everything I had not to snap, ‘Yes, I know he’s coughing. I can hear him. I already have awful visions in my head, thank you very much.’ I can hear the fear in her voice, though; I know that she’s on the edge of panic as well, and is just trying to help.

Is staying down here and pretending it’s nothing worse? There’s nothing I can do upstairs other than sit on the end of his bed and keep myself from hyperventilating as I take every breath with him. And let my mind wander, of course — when he said he was going to have a bad dream tonight, was he having a premonition of sorts? Did he know something would go wrong? Did he have some sense that something terrible would happen?

So here on the couch I sit, completely on edge, partly watching the TV and typing away as I try and distract myself. Knock on wood, fingers crossed, pray, pray, pray that everything will be alright.

 

Beware the ‘Stunk’

Will’s friend Owen was visiting today. They, along with Lucy, played outside for awhile together; then Lucy came in to ice the cupcakes she’d made. (Mini cream cheese filled cupcakes — they were quite good!) I kept my eye on them out the window, surprised at how long the two of them stood there on the platform of the swingset, nearly stockstill, but seeming as though they were having a conversation so I wasn’t too worried about it. The next time I went by, though, Will waved his hands vigorously and called out for help. “We’re trapped!”

“Trapped?” I of course ask, not seeing anything or anyone who’d be trapping them. “By what?”

“The skunk.” 

The skunk (or, ’stunk’, as Owen calls it) that seems to be living under our deck? “Why would you think the skunk is trapping you?” 

“Because,” Lucy innocently said from behind me, “I told them that if they came down the skunk would get them. I didn’t want them to take my swing.”

Oh, goodness. Ingenious, yes, but, well — we’re only eight days into official tween-ship. At the same time, when Will and Owen almost came to blow over a bad Hungry Hippos moment, she completely stepped in and distracted them like a really big big kid. I’m not sure I’m ready for that, either.

Fine Dining

Last night was a Fine Dining night. My choice — Clio’s. I’ve been wanting to go there for awhile, but had held back because every time I looked at the menu, I couldn’t find that many things that I would want to eat. I had to choose on the fly, though (these last few months feel like they’ve been tougher than usual; it was hard to think beyond the moment I was actually in), so I went with it. I did the Open Tables reservation thing — tres easy! Unlike our last place, however, they didn’t seem to register that I had pre-notified about Jeff’s allergies. And, unfortunately, when we got there, it was clear that just about everything had either seafood or poultry in it (literally — there was only a salad and the vegetarian entree for Jeff to choose from). Luckily, he seemed ok with both dishes. But, I admit, I was surprised that a restaurant as prestigious as that would be so limited in terms of options. Maybe I’ve just become a lot more sensitive to what’s available to people with allergies.

On my own part, I wasn’t overly thrilled with the salad. Sesame oil, one of my least favorite tastes, was an unadvertised major component of the dressing. The lobster entree (with fava beans and mushrooms) was quite yummy. I love it when I actually end up ordering the right thing! It doesn’t always happen, unfortunately; happily, though, I also ordered exactly the right dessert for me. Good food, plus good friends equals another excellent Fine Dining experience.

Kelley and I actually thought about going out to the movies afterwards, but the timing didn’t end up working. Sure I am still up and typing at 12:36 am, but I’ve become way too old fogey and need my downtime before bed. A 10 pm movie just doesn’t work for me. Baby Mama and Forgetting Sarah Marshall will have to come some other time. I’ll hopefully manage to catch them in the theater — next week Iron Man and Made of Honor come out, too; two more flicks I’d like to catch. Four whole movies I want to see! Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

Reality Bites

For reasons I won’t bother to go into at the moment, tonight’s TV viewing has been reality-based. I am quite new to the reality genre — scripted TV is definitely much more up my alley. However, I do also happen to like all that singing and dancing stuff, so when Dance Wars with Bruno and Carrie Anne debuted, I thought it might be something that I could actually enjoy watching with Lucy and Will. And, although I certainly understand that all the good-parenting people say that TV and kids shouldn’t go hand in hand, I do have some quite happy memories of the three of us gathering on the couch with popcorn to watch that week’s new episode. (Or, more specifically, of Will standing on the couch with his fists pumping in the air yelling, “Elisabeth! Elisabeth!” for his favorite performer.) At about the same time, I was introduced to Project Runway. It was, well, fierce, I do have to say.

From there, I moved on to America’s Best Dance Crew. That was surprisingly enjoyable! Another one that was mostly dependable in terms of ok kid viewing, plus it was real dancing. Not ballroom, of course, but Jabberwockeez (or however you spell it) was pretty amazing. Status Quo, Kabba Modern, Great Skate (yes, I’m butchering all these names — sorry), weren’t exactly what you’d call bad.

With those being the first foray into reality territory, I felt ready to venture further. Thus I come to tonight’s DVR line-up. First, Dancing with the Stars. Lucy’s liking it, and there are elements I don’t dislike. For example, I kind of like Sheryl Crow. I definitely like the “All I want to do is have some fun” song. What I could really have done without was the two couples dancing to it with both costumes and dance moves that, essentially, were what the Bada Bing girls do (did) in the Sopranos. I mean, are their budgets tight? Can they not afford costumes that cover more of a woman’s body? Do they not understand that less isn’t always more? And the dance itself — it was actually obscene. Give me the street crews from ABDC any day. Sheryl Crow looked a bit stunned as she sang. I didn’t blame her.

The other disturbing thing was the kids doing the ballroom dancing. Much more appropriately, thank God, but still a bit off-putting to see these eight-year-olds as pseudo-adults. Part of it was the costumes, part of it the way they came off in the interviews. Now, I have a precocious eight-year-old of sorts, so I’m more than happy to allow for some of that; the whole stagey-precocious thing is a bit much for me, though.

The second show of the night was Top Chef - the Elements episode. I haven’t taken to Top Chef in the same way as I had to Project Runway. Maybe it’s the people, maybe it’s the show itself. (Although, I do have this overwhelming urge to cook up some of those fancy dishes. Not that you’d know it from our repertoire of macaroni and cheese and McDonald’s.) Tonight, though, I was actually moved.

[SPOILER ALERT - If you don't want to know who got eliminated, don't keep reading until you find it out somewhere else.]

I have to admit, I’ve been kind of annoyed by the Jen/Zoi relationship. Well, not the relationship itself, but the way it gets played into the drama of it all. However — the look on Jen’s face when Zoi was eliminated, the quick embrace and kiss, the hugs all around as everyone said good-bye to Zoi, and then the final Jen/Zoi hug and kiss — clinging but not clingy, incredibly touching… It turned me around, I do have to say. I’m going to miss seeing more of them together.

Well, we’re now into American Idol — my first season of it, if you can believe it — with the bottom three in front of me. I usually don’t watch the ‘elimination’ show (speaking of manufactured drama), although I do tend to like seeing them all perform together. … O.k. As I typed that, there was actual drama. A surprise good-bye. I stand (slightly) corrected. Sorry to see you go, Michael. As, clearly, are many others.

Wait - do they always make them sing the song they lost on? Really?

Oh, good. 30 Rock is up next. Accordingly, they’ve got their own reality thing going on in this ep, and, from the little I’ve seen so far, it is Hi-larious. “We no longer want to hit that,” indeed.

 

“Listen”

We went to Target yesterday. Right into the breach, as Kelley says, late morning on a Saturday — not exactly a down time. Will, being at the age where he is by all means “not little,” is determined not to hold my hand in the parking lot. (Mommy, close your ears.) Feeling as though he is, in fact, old enough to be counted on to walk next to me without holding my hand, I let him do it. Of course, the second I let go of him, he skipped ahead, deciding that this is the point at which to race Lucy in.

Since I am no longer new at this, I had done the scan of where drivers were, etc., so he wasn’t in any immediate danger. Also, he has so far been aware that the sharp “Stop!” actually means something. So, when I yelled it with, o.k., a little bit of panic in my voice, he did manage to come to a sudden halt.

I took his hand, explaining that this is a parking lot, and, therefore, it is not safe to run ahead. Even if it looks like a car might be stopped, there might be a driver in it waiting to pull out and not be able to see a (not) little five-year-old directly behind the bumper.

“Listen,” Will said to me in an overly patient, authoritative voice. “Don’t you think I would hear the engine if the car was about to go?”

Now I know that he is smart, and I also know that he has no qualms telling me whatever is on his mind. Still, dear reader, I was nearly speechless. I tried not to laugh as I weakly responded that yes, that was true, but that he needed to be careful nevertheless because cars could come from anywhere.

Even to my ears it was lame, and Lucy immediately stepped in to say something about cars driving too fast. Before she could finish, Will gave a sharp, “Lucy! You are not part of this conversation.”

Five, I tell you.

Sigh.

 

Welcome to The Nut Panel

I’m biting the bullet, taking the plunge, going full speed ahead into the world of blogging. I figure I’ve got a lot to say and, well, maybe it would be better to say it here than to talk everyone’s ear off.  Why “The Nut Panel”? As a result of the whole scare with Will, we’ve been doing the whole allergy-testing thing. When his case manager said to me, ‘So they’re doing the nut panel?’ it seemed to be quite the appropriate phrase to sum up all the craziness in my life. Thus I welcome you to what I hope will be fairly regular documenting of life in our corner of the world. And if we’re lucky, things will stay on the normal side of nutty.