This is my favourite picture from the holiday season. Natalie and I were on the way to the mall to get a Sears portrait of Elsie, ’cause sometimes you just have a hankering to sit through a photo session at the mall during the Christmas rush with your toddler. Am I right? We stopped to have a zen moment in the driveway. She be cute picking up rocks.
WHAT I’M READING: I picked a book: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. Actually it picked me. It just showed up on my doorstep. Oooo, so mysterious her life. The book is right up my alley: tragical whimsical melancholy.
WHAT ELSIE’S READING: Besides the same 4, she’s taken a liking to Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever…
It is teaching her so many important words: double boiler, undershorts for boys, underpants for girls, you know.
p.s. Don’t try and click on the awkward image with the strange border, ’cause it will take you nowhere. This morning I tried something called technical independence. Not pretty.
WHAT I’M WATCHING:Burn Notice…but wait for it…wait for it…Season 4. This party is coming to an end. Next up: The Wire.
I’m also watching Beaver Theatre’s hype video. Over and over. Because here’s the thing about making things: sometimes you need to affirm yourself. Yes, this was worth the effort. This is the reason I don’t have a real job:
Did I mention I’m thinking of law school?
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: The other morning I was picking a scab (I know, why did I have to tell you that…) and Elsie says: “It’ll get better, Mom.” And yesterday we were walking to get coffee (Elsie had a big time craving) after a traumatic morning and out of the blue she says, “Love you, Mom.” And then this morning she says, “I’m getting old, Mom.” I’m gonna go cry for a while.
WHAT I’M WEARING: Well, lately I’ve been gravitating more and more toward this little casual ensemble of pyjama pants and a soft white shirt. Understanding less and less my infatuation of old with skinny jeans. Why would I wear tight things when I could wear soft loose things. In fact, why wear clothes at all? And for that matter why leave the house? There is so much world to be had within the many oddly shaped walls of my apartment.
WHAT I’M EATING: We have discovered the crock pot. It’s such a genius tool. Putting raw things in, walking away for many hours, and then pulling them out cooked. Fucking novel.
WHAT I’M ENJOYING: Etsy.com. Somehow I signed up for their email. Somehow. Now on a very regular basis I get emails from Etsy regarding all the fun handmade stuff I can buy. So far I have purchased this:
In the most Christian way I can covet, which I’m telling you is pretty Christian.
WHAT I’M SNIFFING: Baked things. And salad that I tossed. Many times over. A couple sentences ago when I said I don’t have a real job—not totally true. On Saturdays I work at a real job now. This means I work for 8 hours, and they pay me small amounts for each of those hours (is this really how it works?). It’s a little cafe, the food is delicious and you would probably like it. My roles: making salad, putting cookies in the oven, mopping the floor at the end of the day…the mopping at the end still baffles me. Who can possibly have the energy for that after 8 hours of salad tossing?
WHAT I’M READING: All those suggestions, y’all, and I never picked one. Are you disappointed in me? I’m disappointed in me. This is all about me and my disappointments. (My mother just cringed. She hates the whole obsessive-inward-looking-self-examination-self-focused stuff of blog culture. She prefers outward and upward. Mom, you’re so old school.)
(Hence a random photo of me smiling. You wouldn’t know there was so much angst under that smile.)
WHAT ELSIE’S READING: Well, let’s just say, while I failed to choose, Elsie has chosen hard. And by hard I mean she’s unbending. The same four books are to be read every night: two dinosaur books, one puppy book (I loathe this one so I just make stuff up) and the one about the Bee Girl.
WHAT I’M WATCHING:Burn Notice, Season 2, has come to an end. Who’s got season 3? Simon and I will pay you in pie and let you sit on the bed between us. But no talking when Michael Westin is acting all cool and doing cool stuff…and just plain exuding cool. Which is all the time. So basically no talking.
(The back of my head also exudes cool. Just sayin’.)
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Elsie’s myriad of new phrases. Like yesterday in the car she told me to “Be quiet” with a ‘No really, Mommy, I’m serious’ kind of face; it was strangely endearing.
WHAT I’M WEARING: A green dress that’s not unlike the shirt I featured last Fantabulous. I’m still liking the loose + the soft. Maybe too much. The barista at my local coffee shop said to me today, “Rebecca, did you wear that yesterday?” “Um. Yes. I did. And the day before that. And I’m probably going to wear it tomorrow. I feel good in this dress. Any more questions?”
WHAT I’M EATING: Homemade apple pie in bed while watching Burn Notice while drinking Rye and Coke. All very decadent. Don’t worry though. Sometimes we just eat noodles at a table with water. And nobody gets seconds.
(Elsie is trying to make her own fun after one such supper. All she has to play with are concrete stairs.)
WHAT I’M ENJOYING: My own body odor BECAUSE BECAUSE I keep buying these shite (pronounced shy-t) natural deodorants. I get lured in time and again by the possibility of patchouli being my under arm saviour. So not true.
WHAT I’M SNIFFING: Wholesome baking. Thank you, Simon, for learning the art of pastry making. Your expertise is vast.
WHAT I’M READING: Ever since I finished Lullabies for Little Criminals, I have been wary to start anything new. Please friends, suggest something wonderful…
WHAT ELSIE’S READING: Dinosaur books of all kinds. This morning she said ‘Brachiosauraus’ right before yelling another gem: ‘NO TALKING!’ I know, Simon and I were trying to talk. We are so stupid.
WHAT I’M WATCHING: Oooo, Burn Notice. Good show.
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: John Mayer sometimes. I don’t really know why. You might barf at his lyrics or get really emotional. Really depends on your state of mind. I’ve done both.
WHAT I’M WEARING: This shirt, which appears to be on a great sale right now. It fits all loose and easy, and feels delicious. There. (Did I sell it? I’m working on my sales techniques.)
WHAT I’M EATING: This really great bread I found at a bakery close to our place. And I do my darndest to buy it after 6 PM so I can get it half price. Yesterday, I scored three loaves. Half fucking price. Be in awe at my money saving talents…which emerge at the strangest of times for the strangest of things.
WHAT I’M ENJOYING: Walking in the Junction. There’s a cheese shop, everybody. The other day I spent $20 on cheese. Perplexing creature she is.
WHAT I’M SNIFFING: Sometimes when I come home, I get whiffs of the rooming house our apartment used to be. It smells like heavy times.
