A meme
2008 @ 10:43 am
It’s been a while since I responded to one of these and this one seemed appropriate to now–I graduated college ten years ago and recently decided to head up there for my reunion. Mr. Sassypants will also attend since he graduated at the same time. But folks, it’s gonna be so strange! See, we were “together” for sophomore year, but spent the rest of our time at school being separate. Barely even friends. We know a lot of the same people, but had very different experiences in that tiny town. It will be interesting to check out our old haunts together. Bars at opposite ends of a two block Main Street. Actually, I wonder if we will even wind up bar crawling together–maybe we’ll separate into our groups? I guess that will depend on his crew showing up though… I digress.
1. Where was I 10 years ago.
Just graduated SUNY Geneseo and had already started my first low-paying job in nonprofit at the Westchester Arts Council. I learned a lot at this place in a bass ackwards sort of way. I was smoking a drinking my way through this summer to be sure. Most of my college buds lived on Long Island so I drove out there almost every weekend. When I stayed in town (Mamaroneck, NY) I ran with my friends Megan and Karen to local bars. My grandma gave me $1,000 towards a professional wardrobe for graduation and I shopped A LOT that summer. I don’t recall what I did for the fourth, but it probably involved missing the fireworks. That always happens to me.
2. Five things on today’s to-do list.
-Start NYFA grant for client
-Go to Abs class at the Y. We are new members.
-Hand address envelopes for Cassie’s birth announcement (yes, late)
-Groceries
-attempt to figure out sidecutter attachment for sewing machine.
3. Snacks I enjoy.
Brownies, plain yogurt with honey, Lundberg rice cakes with butter or cream cheese.
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Start my own foundation to support the arts and social change.
Get my kids better health insurance.
Set my parents up for retirement wherever they want and then make it easy for us to visit whenever we want.
Purchase Volvo S50 and a corner brownstone with one of those detached garages in a good public school zone (that’s right, i would still try hard for public ed).
5. Places I have lived.
New York (Mamaroneck, Geneseo, Manhattan, Brooklyn)
6. Jobs I have had.
babysitter, receptionist, sales clerk, telephone operator, development assistant, development director, foundation program officer, consultant.
7. Who would I like to know more about.
whoever. comment if you decide to go for it!
A day in the life
2008 @ 10:44 pm
I have enjoyed reading Heidi’s “day in the life” posts for the last few years–it’s probably because her daughter and Maia are the same age and have some shared experiences. I thought it would be funny to try one of my own. Yes, funny. Funny because even as I type this, I know that it’s going to be impossible to remember the whole day. So, we’ll see how it goes.
7:30 am: Cassie seems to be awake for “good” at this time. I am so out of it that I think it’s 6:30 when I look at my watch. I look at the clock and realize it’s close to 8. In that span of time, Cassie has spit up three times. In my bed. There has also been a diaper malfunction and there is a baby piddle puddle. In my bed. I hear Maia, Cassie seems to be asleep again, go get Maia.
8 am: Maia greets me, “I want daddy”. Naturally. “He is downstairs”. “I want to see him”. “okay, let’s change your diaper first”. She tells me its “just pee” a few times. Lucky me, it is 
Cassie still sleeping, we debate bringing her and decide not to even though Maia really really wants to. We go downstairs. I talk to Jennifer about the day’s plan to get our girls together post-nap. I call back 5 minutes later to discuss pre-school payment schedule.
9 am: Maia plays and I make coffee and call the health insurance company to contest yet another statement. Low point of my day, even though i think it will work out in my favor.
9:30 am: Maia jumps on daddy who, amazingly, does not wake up. Sidenote: sometimes when Jason comes home from work very late, like 4 am late, he passes out watching TV. She plays with her “topato” (computer), which is really a LeapPad, until I bribe her to the table with orange slices. Orange in slice format is VERY exciting. She also eats a couple of hard boiled eggs, but only the yellow part. Some white part is had with resistance. We have some silly conversations that I don’t really remember right now. The following phrases were uttered at least 5 times each: “what you doin’ mommy?” “where mommy?” “where daddy?” “where cassie?” “where joey?” “who dat mommy?” I tell her the plan for the day, which i thought would involve a trip to the shoe store. Maia would rather go to the park. She has started calling me Papa–what a weirdo. I down two cups of coffee.
10:15 am: Maia seems to be done with breakfast, but chooses to sit with me while I work out the class schedule for Brooklyn General. How nice to have company! We hear Cassie and agree that I should go get her. I am finding it works to ask Maia what we should do when Cassie cries. Turns out we usually agree There’s not really an averse reaction to things having to do with Cassie, i just like involving Maia in the process.
10:30 am: Feed Cassie while Maia watches (sort of) Ni Hao, Kai Lan. Great show, short episodes, positive themes, Mandarin skills. We have seen each episode 1,000,000,000,000 times. I still can only remember “green”. Maia can remember green, red, push, and a few other things.
11 am: Daddy is awake and is on a few calls that seem to involve the purchase of a forklift for $100. I am skeptical, but say nothing. I pass off Cassie to tackle the gross kitchen which was left the night before by me. I passed out with Cassie at 8:30. Sue me. Daddy does a diaper for Cassie.
11:30 am: Nurse Cassie.
11:45 am: I get to shower today–hooray! Maia and Daddy make lunch, Cassie fusses in the bouncy chair. I try on three shirts and finally settle one that has a pattern crazy enough to distract from my baby pooch, but that I can nurse in. Towel dry hair, put in ponytail/knot thing and throw on a headband from Renegade ‘07. That’s right, i didn’t even comb it. Pack diaper bag.
12:30: Bag is packed for our long walk to Brooklyn General that I have strategically planned for naptime. Cassie is falling asleep so I move her to the snuggly thingy that slides into the bottom of our fancy pants double decker stroller. Daddy converts stroller from two-toddler set up from the weekend (cousin visiting) to infant/toddle. See? told you it was fancy pants. Maia tries to go on the potty.
1 pm: We are on the road, yay! Ahead of schedule even, which turns out to be a bad thing. Cassie sleeps the whole way there (40 mins), but Maia never sleeps. Lots of exciting stuff to see: dogs, jackhammer, BIG trucks, buses, etc. Maia has “sprrrring cheese” (string cheese).
1:40: we are there, but Maia is awake. keep walking.
2:10: No napping. Head for Coffee Den to get a peanut butter and jelly on wheat, banana and iced coffee. Meet Catherine there, but don’t recognize her from behind. Hello. She only delivered my baby. Nearly DIE when the cost is only $6.45. I had $12 and was worried it wouldn’t be enough. We walk back to the shop and meet a bunch of friendly faces. Maia plays with some kids that are there and I watch/listen and enjoy my lunch. Cassie is still sleeping–I am somewhat amazed by this. Maia gets possessive when another child looks a HER baby sister and covers the stroller with a blanket. So freakin’ cute.
3:00: Maia’s playmate who DID nap, wakes up and they are getting along well–only minor sharing B.S. to deal with. Cassie wakes up, nurses and goes back to sleep. Wow. I wind some yarn.
3:30: I decide to walk Maia again and there is talk of going to the playground. Run into Stephanie and Camille, who are meeting us at the store. After 15 mins there is no napping and the sky look foreboding. Go back to shop and watch Camille, Paloma and Maia play. Lots of running and craziness. Also lots of hugging. Maia gets huggy when she’s tired, but Paloma is sick of it and needs her own space. I cast on for Earl Grey socks. Cannot believe I accomplished this.
4-something: Cassie wakes up and nurses. Maia getting crazier by the second, I begin to wonder if we are trapped at the store by weather. I call Jason to see what’s up with him–any chance he can rescue us? Fancy pants stroller is not devised for public transportation. he might be free at 6:30 so I decide we are eating dinner at the shop. yay pizza! There is crazy play going on, hugging that ends in injury (toddlers often knock each other over when they hug), “mine mine mine!!!!”, sneeze-ball (the very first game Maia and Paloma made up with each other), maia is tired and falls a lot (”i ok!”). Change diapers.
5 something: Pizza is procured and Stephanie and Camille take off. Cassie goes back to sleeping. There is intermittent conversation about how I will get home dry. Take the subway and hope someone pities me and helps me get stroller down and up the stairs? Leave the stroller at the shop and take the bus? Leave the stroller at Jennifer’s and take the other bus? Settle on the latter. Children are instructed to sit on butts or knees on the chairs to eat pizza. Small amount of pizza is consumed and also some chocolate milk. Gross combo, huh? Maia falls off the chair and announces “I all done”. i think she meant to say, “I ok”, but was so tired she mixed up the words. Either way, she nailed it in that she was totally DONE with being awake.
6:10: We leave the shop.
6:30-ish: Get to Jennifer’s and I decide to go for it. I pee at her place and grab some crackers for the ride. We make it about 5 blocks and run into a former student, Melissa, who just had an ADORABLE baby boy. On the small side like my babies Getting paranoid about rain and decide to walk fast.
6:45-ish: Crossing Gowanus Canal and feel drops. See lots of drops in canal. CRAP–this is the worst place for it to start raining. No shelter. Start to run. Get 1/4 mi and realize I am way way way out of shape, but maia really likes going fast. Walk again. Fast. We make it to the door with the first clap of thunder and I am the most wet, but it’s not that bad. Phew. Cassie waking up.
7 pm: Nurse Cassie. Maia searches for various toys, pets the cat and pulls out a book to read. Maia finally poops and we change her diaper.
7:30 pm: Maia requests water (with lemon juice like mommy) and we head upstairs to bed. Cassie is awake, but pretty quiet while we read books-nice! Change Cassie’s diaper. Once in the crib Maia asks for Cassie to sleep with her. This is nightly. I explain that some day Cassie will sleep in the room with her, but not until she’s bigger. She asks me to “sleep on Oda’s bed” (this is Lola’s bed and Lola is Maia’s paternal grandmother. really, it just came from her house and will someday be Maia’s bed). I tell her that Cassie and I will nap in there with her tomorrow. And we will. That works and Cassie and I say good night and leave the room.
8 pm: clean up a little bit downstairs and realize Cassie’s been asleep, like, all day. I pick her up and hold her for an hour or so and give her a little more to eat. Call my parents. Watch So You Think You Can Dance. Dance around a little with Cassie. Until cable box fritzes. Stupid thing.
9 pm: Cassie is clearly tired so I pop the pacifier in to help her relax. She falls asleep and I put her in the bouncy chair. She’s been making intermittent grunty noises, but is still asleep as I type.
11 pm: will probably fall asleep on couch until Jason gets home around 12. He says he’ll take the next feeding (for a couple of night Cassie’s been sleeping 5 hours at this first stretch). Yay sleep. Oh wait, I need to change my sheets. I am pretty confident that if I hadn’t decided to write this post, i wouldn’t remember that until too late.
11:15: Maia crying. She is overtired, but puts herself back to sleep.
All in all a pretty typical, fun day! I even got a little knitting and a little cleaning in. How about that
The cutest kid stuff…
2008 @ 8:36 am
I’ve been trolling online shops for good stuff for girl #1 and girl #2… thought I’d share my finds:
Wallpaper Letters from Land of Nod. This site also has those kids armchairs for under $60.
Set of 12 blank kids aprons from Discount School Supply. They’ve also got rolls of paper for less than I imagined. Including one with two textures: smooth for markers, finger painting and fine line drawing with no fear of bleed-through; rough that handles tempera, watercolors and acrylic paints.
This is more of a “coming soon”. Mary of Scribble Nation has some cute as heck Russian doll softies on the line right now…
And finally, I’m working on some baby shoes from the tutorial posted by Joann at Stardust shoes. They are adorable, but I’ll save the photo for when I’m totally finished. MJ and I will stroll out for some 1/8″ elastic after breakfast. I think easing the toe and heel in to place on these shoes has been good practice for setting in the sleeves on MJ’s Girl Style jacket…
PSA: No Vaseline near Toddler
2008 @ 9:05 am
Plucky Fluff in Brooklyn
2008 @ 8:38 am
This here’s a cheer for all the Spinners:
Brooklyn General will be hosting a freestyle spinning workshop, CAMP PLUCKYFLUFF with fiber artist, Lexi, of Pluckyfluff fame. To participate in this amazing workshop, you must have basic spinning experience. The two-day workshop will take place on January 19th & 20th from 10 am to 5 pm and costs $200.
Camp Pluckyfluff is two FULL days of spinning classes and workshops. Going from 10am to 5pm both days, it will cover a broad spectrum of techniques. The emphasis, however, will be on helping you to learn to create your own new and original styles. A list of materials needed is provided on Lexi’s website, here. Call the shop at 718.237.7753 with any questions and to register!
hm, something weird…. something random
2007 @ 4:09 pm
——————————————————————————-
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. ——————————————————————————-
Okeedokee–Cal has tagged me with a meme thing. I haven’t done one of these in AGES so I’ll play along. But, am I really that weird? I mean everyone is weird. Frankly, you should all comment about my weirdnesses so I know what they are! If you don’t get around to it, I’m sure my kids will keep me abreast of my oddities when they get older.
1. Something that came up recently: I have decided that I am having a boy, not a girl as I has originally felt so strongly. My reason? I have clear pee, not cloudy. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. (ew)
2. I think that I only recently put it together that Kanga + Roo = Kangaroo. I guess I just never thought about it?
3. I’ve started testing my continental knitting skills on morning commute. See? You guys probably don’t think that’s weird. I think the students in my classes think I am off my rocker.
4. Being vegetarian used to be weird. I could go months without meeting another one as a child. Now, at least half in every group of people I am with are veg! Same goes for my name, although the ratio is still way less than half.
5. And now for the random: I am fairly knowledgeable at interpreting statistics. I don’t think there is any evidence of this on the blog, so now you know. This came up at the Spiders Holiday Party, of all places!
You are all tagged. All of you.
You may have noticed some BIIIIIIGGGGG sidebar changes here! I decided to add BlogHer ads to my site. It’s a little experiment and I hope you don’t mind… so far I’ve seen two ads: one from BlogHer and the other from the international relief organization, CARE. I support both so, thus far, am pleased. If you see something you like, click on through!
ugh.
2007 @ 12:09 pm
For those of you with me here in Brooklyn, in spirit or in residence, please watch this brief video on Downtown development. This neighborhood is located smack between where we live and where my husband owns a business. While the Downtown district is no doubt tired, I take issue with several things presented here. Not individual buildings, but rather the idea that real art and commercial “vitality” in the form of chain retail can co-exist, that small business will have any chance to “thrive”, and, most of all, the fact that long-time residents will no longer be able to afford their homes (many have been lost already) and probably their groceries too. Forced gentrification has implications that cross many moral lines for me.
I would love to hear comments.
Twisted Tree Pullover
2007 @ 8:59 am
A few weeks ago I cast on for the Twisted Tree Pullover by Sarah over at Blue Garter. I had to tink back, as you may recall, at the very beginning, but have been moving happily along since then. Strategically placed markers are doing wonders! I believe I’m on number five of eight repeats for the body (pic taken at earlier date).
I’m loving the pattern so far! I’m using Knitpicks Swish for this project and I’ll let you know how it holds up Border accent color is Clematis Heather and main body is Squirrel Heather.
link it up…
2007 @ 12:08 pm
Since I’ve been sitting in front of a desk for more hours lately, I’ve had more time to peruse the Internets. Here’s some of the cool stuff I’ve found (some repeats)…
-
This sweet Pallete Generator tool. You upload a picture, it draws out the colors and presents you with hex codes.
-
Machine embroidery Russian Doll designs. Yes, I’m hopping on that bandwagon.
-
A Simple and Elegant dress tutorial (sewing).
-
I wait with bated breath for the book Stitch, Dissolve, Distort with Machine Embroidery to arrive on my doorstep. To my knowledge this is the only book of its kind.
A very interesting website–All Look Same explores Asian stereotyping from many angles. Can you differentiate the peoples, architecture, art or food of Asian countries? Should you be able to?
-
And in the just plain crazy category–Filipino prisoners do Thriller. A coordinated activity by the prison. If you love to dance, find yourself a Pinoy.
Some FOs later in the week–I’ve got a team of finishers coming over tomorrow night!
cutey bootee
2007 @ 7:00 pm
I whipped this little bootee the other night because someone in my intermediate class has chosen the pair as her project and I wanted to be sure I knew what was up before trying to explain it to her. I am in constant fear of looking like an asshole in front of my students.
It’s the Garter Stitch Bootee (to match jacket) in Quick Baby Knits (Debbie Bliss). I thought it was pretty vanilla until I added this kick ass elephant button. Now they are HOT. I have the perfect recipient too–my fabulous friend Sam is expecting in October They are 80% sure it’s a girl, but just in case, I’m steering clear of pink. A store bought, gender specific gift I could live with not being used. But a hand knit? I’m not taking any chances.
I am re-starting the second sleeve of my Lace Trim Bolero. I had a “moment” today and thought I had picked up the stitches on the wrong side of the lace trim. I was about half way done and ripped too soon. There was nothing wrong. Let it be known to the universe that the irony of Weezer’s Sweater Song coming up at that exact moment on my i-pod was not lost on me.
If you want to destroy my sweater
Pull this thread as I walk away (as I walk away)
