taking a break

Even apart from the Attack on Allysha's knees, life is a little hectic right now. I remember my mom saying that on Saturday nights she was always angry about something and it wasn't until years later that she realized it was a way to get her energy up so that she could get the house clean before Sunday. So, about a week ago when I started waking up a little ticked off at the world (mostly at inept doctors) I remembered this little story and said to myself "uh -oh". It's one thing to need to get psyched up for a Saturday night cleaning event; it's another when you need it to just get your day going. When I wrote up a draft post asking people getting married to kindly stop inviting me to their events because they were just too much for me, well...

My daughter starts 1st grade on Monday. My other daughter has developed a chest cold. My husband is finishing up a whirlwind of summer freelance projects and is getting ready to dive into a double dose of taking and teaching classes. My eighty year-old grandmother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last week, which could be an entire post in and of its self.

I've been thinking through how I can better organize things, how I can make sure the most important things get done, how my family can be happy and sane through this process of life. Well, maybe sane is overrated and too much to ask and I don't mind a little crazy some of the time. But a lot of crazy, well, I need to hunker down here. Which brings me to blogging.

I need a little break. I can hardly bear to take one, but I need it. I'm afraid you won't come back to read me if I leave for a little while (all 10 of you- oh wait, that's my family ~ so maybe all 20 of you! ~ I don't want to sound too pretentious), but I need to. I'm already pushing it by staying up super-late to watch Michael Phelps and Nastia Lukin but the Summer Olympics come but every four years, and gold medal ceremonies are good cathartic releases and no one will fault you if a few tears slip down your cheeks. (Seriously, those Visa commercials can get to me...) And you don't mind that I'm choosing gold medals over a few blog posts, right? I'll stay up late a few more nights and then I'll get to bed earlier, and get some things organized around the house, get the fall routine going and then I'll be back to blogging. It won't be too long, actually. Just long enough.

See you in a few weeks.

in which I decide to pursue a medical degree

So I was at the doctor's office today for the umpteenth time, with two doctors and a medical student thrown in for good measure; all three standing around trying to appropriately diagnose the confusing red sore spots that keep popping up on my legs and being somewhat painful. They said I was a mystery, and hey! that always makes a woman feel good, because being mysterious is fun!

Except not so much when it keeps you from being properly diagnosed! And full of antibiotics! And such.

The doctors think these mysterious painful spots may be an autoimmune reaction of some sort. Sort of my body fighting my body, maybe because I had such a violent attack of strep throat in June. The med student actually was just observing and so I don't know what he thinks of the whole kafuffle, but the other two doctors and I had some good fun conversations.

If that's the case (the whole autoimmune whatever whatever) I just need to take a lot, but not too much, ibuprofen and wait for it to go away. If it is a bacterial infection I need to let it get bad enough so that they can get a sample of the bacteria so that they can culture it and see what in the heck it is. Medicine is not the science you think it is folks. But it seems entertaining enough and has me considering a career as a family practitioner.

get your engines started

There's nothing quite like a pending visit from the mother-in-law to inspire the necessary motivation to get the house clean. As long as I don't expire in the process.




This is what I'm saying.

nothing profound

It's Thursday night and I'm glad it's time for bed.

I went to a cousin's wedding and Ben put the kids to bed. It was really nice, but I like weddings better when I'm there with Ben.

I am the new owner of an old cruiser bicycle with new wheels and a basket and I'd like to paint it red.

I'm tired of stucco houses.

If a tree falls in the middle of a forest and no one is around to hear it...oh, yeah, I'm not doing profound.

allowance

Our rental lawn is gathering weeds. Because I don't own this place, sadly my investment in it is small. But still, I don't want it to look trashy so yesterday I did a little weeding. The kids came to help me, some pulling up more grass than weeds, but hey, whatever. It was a pleasant 15 minutes. Back inside awhile later for lunch my oldest asks me a question with happy anticipation on her face.

Her: Mom, can I have some money for weeding?
Me: Um, maybe.
Her: Okay. I want five dollars.

I'm afraid I laughed explaining that she would have to weed a lot more to merit five whole dollars. She was a little disappointed. Yes. If only getting money were so easy.

quote for the day

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt.

let's get this out of the way~breaking dawn review

WARNING * SPOILER ALERT *

{Really, if you're going to read the book, you'll probably want to read this AFTER you finish it. Or you can scroll down gently for my initial reaction and then read the rest later.}

So.

I read it on Saturday.

My honest reaction?

I was disappointed.

On several levels.

Sure the ending was happy and good and hooray for Bella, beautiful eternal vampire with Edward, her beautiful eternal vampire, and their absolutely amazing life. I'm sure my 14 year-old sister will be thrilled to read about it. Especially their 'night life.' How gratifying for the both of them. That we could all be so lucky.

Here's the deal: Lei posted a short little note on her blog asking if we were annoyed at Bella. Yeah. A little. I can't tell you how relieved I was to get out of Bella's head and into Jacob's. That's where the story became bearable for me. I liked Jacob leaving the pack, I liked Seth. I was irritated at Edward being such a jerk. The Rosalie/Jacob bickering got old really fast.

Here's something though: After recently re-reading through sorcerer's stones and chocolate frogs, snakes and swords, potions, Quidditch, wands, and labyrinths with death at their center ~things quite fantastical, one must say ~ I picked up my copy of Eclipse just for fun, to read through the ending and remind myself what was going on up in Forks. You know what happened? The utter fluff of the Bella and Edward saga hit me in the face, except it was so soft and silly, it didn't do anything to me, except make me realize that Harry Potter had more substance to it than I previously thought, and that the Twilight series is more like eating cotton candy. Hey, I like cotton candy every once in awhile. But there's no way I could make a diet out of it.

In the beginning Stephenie Meyer did a good job at creating a compelling story and I was interested in the characters. I was curious about the resolution and that is what kept me reading. The Breaking Dawn story didn't feel that well executed compared to the earlier books nor was it very well written. I felt that especially in the second Bella section that I was reading S. Meyer writing about S. Meyer. I could feel the author behind the character and it was annoying.

The whole Jacob-Bella-Edward triangle turned square with the arrival of Renesemee was bizarre, and though I was glad that Bella didn't miss out on the important life experience of motherhood (seriously, I wanted her to choose Jacob, if only for that), it was just weird. Another thought that I had was that writing The Host had sent her to a weird place in writing Breaking Dawn. I don't know this for sure, and I haven't read The Host, so it's just a conjecture.

The ending was decent, because of course Alice came back. Duh. And I felt like I was reading the other books in the series, where it was fluff, but at least it was suspenseful, interesting fluff. And happily they overcame the Vulturi for now and Bella was meant to be a vampire, la, dee, dah, la, dee, dah, la, dee, dah.

My only question is this: If getting a vampire and a human together causes problems, what happens when a werewolf with a half-vampire/half-human fall for each other? Just kidding.

I don't really want to know.

the sun is burning*

Well, it's August. I like the month of August. I like how it sounds. I like that it means summer is winding up. I don't like the heat. I wish August were a little more Simon and Garfunkle {"August, die she must. The autumn winds blow chilly and cold..."}

Actually, I can't for the life of me figure out why Mr. Simon wrote those words because both he and Garfunkle are from New York, and New York in August is generally unbearable, although it is a great line. Maybe a bit of wishful thinking, and I certainly understand that. And actually I like Simon & Garfunkle more than I like August. I have a 3 CD collection with all their stuff and it is fabulous, if I do say so myself. Which I do.

So, here we are back to August then, and of the next 15 days one-third-plus of them have some wedding activity associated with them. This means some free food, but also the need for babysitters and some driving. Maybe we can carpool and save some gas. All the cousins on my mom's side of the family of a certain age decided this was the year to get married, and that's what's happening. This will be fun and entertaining, but also tiring. Sad to say, but I have my limits when it comes to socializing, even with family. Also, Back to School Night makes it appearance in the next two weeks. And that is just crazy. Crazy, I tell you! I need to take some time to make sure my daughter remembers what ever it was she learned in Kindergarten so she can sail into 1st grade without much difficulty.

Also, my bedroom is really an absolute mess.

Maybe what I'm saying is that like Simon and like Garfunkle, I like the idea of August, more than the actual August itself. So, if I'm posting a little less regularly, it's because I'm gearing up for Fall {Fall! My favorite season of them all!} and trying to enjoy the idea of August a lot, so that August doesn't completely overwhelm me, and then I'll be ripping and roaring and ready for the college football season and school and the return of the regular convening blogosphere, which does seem to meet more regularly once summer winds up. And I totally understand why.

It's because then August will be over.



*The Sun is Burning is a song by Simon and Garfunkle from their album Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.