My Blog About Me

I was thinking about the Dr Seuss book My Book About Me, which my brothers and I had. Every kid should have this book, because who doesn't like filling out surveys about themselves (or is that just me)? You filled in blanks about how many windows there were in your house, how many pets you had, the longest trip you'd taken, etc.

I apparently edited all of my answers several times, erasing what I'd written and updating the information, which leaves the whole book looking like it was filled out by a terribly disturbed and/or indecisive child. For "When I grow up I want to be a (blank)," I first wrote something that's now illegible, changed it to "mother," then crossed that out and wrote "millionaire." Which makes me think I jinxed myself, that there was another reality in which I was actually a millionaire.*

So to continue with the "About Me" theme, I'd like to say that in my eternal, deadly dull quest to ease my stomach/digestive problems, I'm quitting sugar for a couple of weeks (meaning sweeteners, white flour, processed stuff, etc). I think of myself as a pretty healthy eater (with a healthy love of treats), but clearly I had become a total sugar junkie without noticing it--as of Day 3, I have a crushing continuous headache that even wakes me up from sound sleep. It's worse than kicking caffeine, which I've also done a time or two.

And yet, I persevere! With the help of this kale and quinoa salad, which sounds so so so healthy but is actually so delicious I could eat it all day long.

Mark and I watched Wayward Pines, which was great in a poor man's Twin Peaks/Lost kind of way, with the addition of the not-very-skilled acting of Matt Dillon and some truly horrifying zombie-ish creatures.

Our Girl returns to the US on Friday night! And then she leaves for Chicago on Sunday morning! But! First we get to spend all of Saturday hugging her!




*it goes without saying that I'd rather be a mother, but hey, why not both?

sweeties

my california sweeties, robot and pink, came to visit us for a few days this week. it was so wonderful to see them - they fit very comfortably into our routines around here, and they are funny, smart, sweet kids. on sunday robot dressed up like a zombie with boo and they played kickball in the pouring rain at zombie kickball IV:
























two of pink's favorite things are dogs and rain, and we were able to provide her with plenty of both (lulu was here, too, with my mom and dad):
























on monday we had some hot chocolate at arabica, and then pink and i took a long, wet walk in the rain together:
























now we've sent them back to cambridge for a day of boston fun (boo went too), and then my dad will deliver them to their other grandmother in new jersey.

also, have you noticed that it's july? the month in which we get our girl back??! TEN days.

old friends

i have so much to say about this weekend, which i spent mostly* in connecticut with my dearest, oldest friend holly. we had recently gotten back in touch with two close friends of ours from high school (thanks, facebook!), and we made plans for a mini-reunion at holly's house, which is more or less a central meeting point for the four of us (i had the farthest to drive, but i also have the oldest children among all of us, so i'm pretty free and flexible in comparison to everyone else). i was a little nervous about meeting my friends karen and jen again after so much time (approximately - ahem - twenty years had passed since we last saw each other) - wondering if we'd have anything in common anymore, anything to talk about, even. it was a kind of magical surprise to see them, looking simultaneously exactly like themselves and also like beautiful, grownup ladies, and to realize as we hugged each other hard, with true feeling, and my friend jen even burst into tears, that we love each other, truly. that we share a history together, from a particular, strange time in our lives, and just how meaningful that really is, even after all this time.

we ate and talked and shared pictures of kids and siblings and we each summed up the last twenty years, and about six or seven hours flew by. it was quite amazing.

also, holly gave me a hair cut (seen above). i'm such a doofus that i didn't take any pictures except of my own head, in holly's lovely bathroom mirror. also, i got some cute kids to model those glasses for me. oh yeah, and here's a spectacular tree house that holly's husband val built in their back yard:
























*on sunday, i raced back to portland to experience some zombie kickball in the rain.

easter, cont.

fueled by bags and bags of candy and chocolate, a big plate of rice and beans, a thrilling game of monopoly, and the presence of our friend enoch, boo put on this huge coat and staggered around like a blind zombie for about half an hour last night.

zombie chilling on the couch:
























blind lurching zombie:
























zombie fangs:

zombie kickball

today was our friend matt's birthday, so we met him, heather, nick and ava (along with other friends mitchell, landis, pie and lulu) at local 188 for brunch, then headed home to apply zombie makeup to boo, nick and ava.

zombie kickball was awesome! as you can see above, it was pretty dangerous for us humans -- there must have been at least fifty zombies there. below, nick and boo look extremely undead:
























see nick running the bases? i think he earned the title of "cutest, littlest zombie of all."
























some random zombies -- i loved the two "tourist zombies" with their maps and tourist outfits:
























zombie group picture -- the only thing better would have been a zombie group hug:



















two zombies formerly known as boo and ava:
























bean, meanwhile, was at an irish pub watching the euro cup with her friend rafaela. we cramped her style a little bit by showing up for the second half of the match. most of the crowd was clearly rooting for spain (as were boo and rafaela), but the rest of us were hoping for a german win.
























below, bean and rafaela. bean's happy look is deceptive -- spain won.
























below, m and matt peek around the corner at the television.
























and the perfect ending to this great day is that the amazing ms.hannah barnes is coming over for dinner.

weekend highlights

it's surprisingly exhausting being a stage parent. i was grateful that yesterday was a holiday, because i was tired after running bean around all weekend, getting up early to drive her to locations, staying up late to film a scene in our basement (involving a grave, a creepy mourning woman (me), and bean climbing out of the dryer)...

so here are a few behind-the-scenes shots of the video shoot:




















although it looks like chad is asking for her hand in marriage, it's actually more of a baptism situation. see that wind-up duck-on-a-bicycle on chad's shoulder? that plays an important part in the video.




















a class of children in an empty lot: notice who's teaching them?




































professor boo.

this scene was filmed on his birthday, contributing to the fun whirlwind of a day -- a little acting in the morning, some zombie kickball in the afternoon, and an evening of opening presents, feasting on indian food with friends, eating cake, and playing 1,000 blank white cards.

speaking of zombie kickball.

and you'll also enjoy this song, bean's current fave.

happy zombie day

it's zombie kickball day! oh yeah, and it's also boo's birthday! what could be a more perfect combination? he prepared his zombie costume last night while we were filming a scene for bean's video in the basement.

puppy love

i tried to create a link to my mom's google calendar page for next week, to demonstrate vividly how obsessed she is with her new love, lulu.
























i was unable to do this without violating her privacy and mine as well (and most other members of my family, as our google calendars are all interconnected). however, let me just say that the word "lulu" appears at least twice each day, and a record four times on sunday, april first. example: "clean lulu's ears. lulu ear meds. lulu frontline." she forgot to write things like "gaze at lulu sleeping." "talk babytalk to lulu." "scratch behind lulu's ears." "call people on the phone and tell them what lulu's doing."

we get to meet her tonight! i'll take some pictures. with bean's camera, that is, otherwise, lulu would resemble a green zombie dog from the future. like this one: