Sunday, April 29, 2007

G es por Gozar

Khubz está gozando de estos alimentos. . .

  • Peas
  • Carrots
  • Squash (really, really enjoys acorn squash)
  • Avocado (hold the salt)
  • Chickpeas (sometimes is tricked into thinking she's getting squash)
  • Mango (and it keeps her regular)
  • Peaches (mixed with rice, please)
  • Green beans
  • Applesauce (especially if one of the mommies is also eating it)

The jury is still out on

  • Mashed potatoes
  • Bananas
  • Ice cream (we did a dna check. she is, in fact, my child)

F es por Fuuuucker



Here's why this matters. . .

Everybody does it, yells at their kids and this was taken out of context

We have lost our sense of public/private

Some 'man' did not think about what was in my child's interest when taking this tape public

I am devoted to the cause of parental alienation, restoring fairness

This is work that I've been creeping up on

I know you're with me, rosie. We've both been attacked by the public

My mom is so great. She's a cancer survivor. She loves me.

i have tens of thousands of men contact me who are victims of parental
alienation. if you think they're mad, you should hear the women they're
with now. they call and say, my husband's ex-wife is a bleep'n bleep
bleep. . .

By the way, my ex-wife is the one who really yells at my daughter

I really encourage all you going through divorce to work to peace.

Well, shit, i never loved rosie. this makes me think she's an idiot.

In other news. . .Some of you know I've had my jaw realigned lately. I'm fine. I highly recommend sedation dentistry for any of you who are pondering such a thing. The drugs are something else. And even if you feel really awake the next day, don't drive. Some woman could be driving with her brand new baby and see you swerve and scream "you're driving as if I don't have a baby in my car! What's wrong with you!" Really, I'm fine.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

E is por Excavación en el oído

Well, Khubz is on the fast track to anthropology. Her favorite excavation site? Her ear. Her external auditory canal. Any spot with thin skin, lots of blood flow and ten additional points if that same site sets off alarm bells for a brain hemorrhage.


This is actually a long story. Here's the ten cent version:

Daycare calls & Khubz is bleeding out her ear. She laid down to nap and blood had pooled out her ear, smeared across her cheek, on her shirt (brand new "My Mommies Love Me" shirt) and on the play pen. COMPLETELY FUCKING SCARY. S and I take her to her doctor as this is ultimately faster than going to the emergency room. She had stopped bleeding.

The dr. is scraping out the dry crusted blood from her ear and my child is babbling happily even as the long plastic hook peels away the scab. "You should know that Khubz is unreasonably good natured and therefore not trustworthy. Something could be wrong even though she's not crying." Happy, happy babble from the child.

Khubz has some kind of tear at the base of her ear canal. Her ear drum is fine. She is not bleeding from her brain. There's nothing to do about it. Don't let her stick any sharp sticks in her ear (and we had just given her a new set of sticks for ear-digging. Poor girl will have to leave them in the package.)

Of course the real kicker to all of this is that I have been bitching a lot about my child. She had us up every hour last night and sometimes every 30 minutes. So I had once again been la madre crespa. And what happens? My child begins bleeding out her ear.


Don't worry. I know, I know. I still get to complain about this girl I love. I'll just need to check her ears afterwords.

On an unrelated note. .
It is really fun to see where I am getting hits from.

Some folks have gotten here by google searching for

  • Orange Fruit Poem
  • Graphic Descriptions of People Injured In Landmines
  • Uvula Fetish
  • Fruits Beginning With H
  • Why is it called "Children of Men"
  • Examples of Juxtapose Poems

Ah, the company you keep. No fears, though. They never stay long.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

D es por "Donde estan las frutas?"

Aqui! Aqui!


Mira la fruta estrella.
Que bonita.
Que bonita.

Ch es por "Cha-Cha-Cha" or it doesn't all have to be complicated and full of angst, right?

Khubz is a musical child. She has some favorite songs.

  • El Marciano (the Martian dancing cha-cha-cha)
  • Theme music to the Pink Panther (with tickling, please)
  • Itsy-bitsy Spider (English or Spanish, the immediate Khubz pleaser)
  • Un Elefante (sung up to cuarenta elefantes will get her to sleep even without milk)
  • Splish-Splash I was takin a bath (I'll let you deduce when she likes this one, inspector)
  • Theme music for bonanza, the lone ranger or gunsmoke while bouncing up & down with one of the mommies (is it still imperialist if it is completely divorced from it's context and is limited to 'bump-ba-da-dump-ba-da-da?)
  • Mhanamahna (and most any muppet show tune that I jig to)
  • Ladybug Picnic (which inevitably leads us to)
  • Me & My Llama (they don't go to the dentist though. My anxiety sends them elsewhere)

Monday, April 23, 2007

C (otra vez) es por crespo

Crispy.
One crispy mommy.

It was a rough morning.

Afterword--I love a "p.s." inserted into the top of a story. It's kind of like a pre-script instead of a post-script. Or kind of like a prequel without the idiotic jarjar binks and other disappointments to what could have been a timeless epic. **AHEM ** Back to the Afterword--I have just returned from the park with my lovely friend and her two lovely children. I feel distinctly less crispy & less lonely. The girl is also completely tuckered out. This helps sometimes. It certainly helps tonight. So moving from "it was a rough morning" to "it was a lovely evening" is pretty damn good. Please read the post below with a sense of calm and forgiveness. It was written in crispiness.

First, the wedding was marvelous! I'd never been to a Buddhist ceremony before and it was beautiful, Samm looked exquisite (of course), the children had a great time in the hotel pool and many of the adults had a great time as well (I did get in my swimsuit, not unlike a guinea pig tunneling through a paper towel roll and having just as good a time)

The trip was full of adventure for our girl. Khubz sat on a grassy lawn for the first time. She crawled forward for the first time. She got in a pool for the first time (looking devastatingly cute in her swimsuit.) She went to her first wedding. She wore her first ridiculously poofy dress.

Two sisters traveled from Iowa to Colorado via Missouri (this has the added benefit of making an 11 hour road trip a 16 hour road trip.) The parents and my brother & sister-in-law traveled from Colorado to Iowa via Kansas. So, all things being relative, our drive was painless (though also endless if you're trapped in a rear-facing carseat.) On the trip back I learned to absolutely love rest areas. Not only did the girl have well timed bowels but the mommies needed a place to stretch.

Now for the crispy mommy:
Khubz had a pretty clingy day once we were out of the car. The mommies made multiple attempts at a romantic interlude and the child thwarted each and every one. I don't know who designs mobiles for baby cribs but they sure as shit need to run the music for more than 5 minutes. We are lesbians for godssake. There's no hurry. Unfortunately, Khubz is now referring to her crib as "the crying place." Finally we gave up & everyone went downstairs. Mama went to unload the truck and Khubz fell asleep while nursing. S. needed help getting something out of the truck and I said, "I'll put her down but she'll scream." I put her down on the floor. She woke up, looked at me, opened her mouth and. . . yawned. She fell asleep. UnFingBelievable. She would wake up each time I put her in the crib. This same child saw that she was being put down and decided the floor was acceptable where the crib was not. The moment had passed and so we unloaded the truck. Khubz did fall asleep hard that night but so did the mommies and in the hierarchy of needs sleep is way, way up there. But even this does not get us to the crispy mommy.

This morning we all get up and in the shuffle for the day. We just got back from Colorado yesterday so all of the clothes are dirty except the one outfit I put on for work. Khubz gets a triamenic strip (against her will) and I am rewarded by being vomited upon. Stunned, I ask, "Did she just puke on me?" The Chicana actually begins to laugh. The child has puked up milky, snotting vomit yet again. All down the back my shoulder. A stream runs down my skirt. A puddle forms on the floor. And yes, there is puke even in my hair. "I can't just change clothes." I hand the child back to the non-pukey mommy and I get back in the shower. I emerge and the child has been cleaned up, the floor has been cleaned up and I really, really don't want to spend the day with my child (bad, bad mommy.)
I don't feel so well myself, am really tired and was also feeling a bit pissy about having just been puked on. Khubz has a low grade fever, is still pulling on her ear and has constant mucus. The dr. opens at 8.

I call them at 7:59:58 "There's an opening at 8:30, can you get here?" "Thereis?Great!Igottago!I'llberightthere!!!!" I start to hang up and hear "Ma'am? MA'AM? I need your name." "Uh, sorry." "And your daughter's date of birth?" "Sept of 07--06 I mean 06. It's been a rough morning." We get there and fast. No ear infection, some fluid behind the left ear (not the one she's been pulling at) but no infection. In the right ear? Ear wax. (some of you are laughing and, yes, Khubz is my child.) But no problems. She's been sick on & off for three weeks but the dr. said we can just expect her to continue being sick & better & sick & better and unless her fever gets up to 102 or something that we just consider this basic training for her immune system. This means that I and S. have been sick & better and as I write this mucus runs down the back of my throat. How sick is too sick for daycare? More sick than this, thank the goddess! Bad, crispy mommy. I have never been so happy to be at work and have her at daycare. (I have deleted and retyped that last sentence a dozen times. I shudder to leave it in the post but it just feels like cowardice to delete it again. I know, I know. Now I feel like deleting that sentence and this little tangent because the tanget seems dumb, dumb, dumb. Alas, looks like it will all stay & I'll leave you to wonder just how stupid something has to be in order to qualify for deletion.)

Quick--Change the topic. I'm writing this as I listen to the Gonzales hearings. I love to hear him squirm. I also love hearing Schumer overheard by the mic at the break. All the impeach Bush/Gonzales War Criminal protesters stand up when they break for lunch and start yelling. Schumer laughs, "There've got too many people to kick out." I am surprisingly impressed by Arlen Specter. I think everyone missed the boat on the highest humor of the Gonzales hearing. It was when Specter said, "I know you've been preparing for this hearing" and Gonzales quipped like a jerk, "Senator, I prepare for every hearing" pissing Specter off. "Were you prepared for your press conference?" "I didn't say I was prepared, I said 'i prepare'" "Did you prepare?" "We try to take some time to prepare before our press conference, yes." . . . "I don't think you're going to win a debate on how you prepare for your press conference" That was your clip, jon. And yes, Specter is pro-choice. Alas, I still cannot heart him. But this at least helps me recognize that he's human. The same is not true for everyone who is calling for Gonzales to step down. Take Senator Coburn from Oklahoma and his "rampant lesbianism" destroying their schools. He can call for Gonzales to step down all he likes and he is still one big dick.

I did look at the slate article as suggested by Rivolta but I don't buy it. I do think he is genuinely squirming.


"Consider how Gonzales rebuffed Republican Sen. John Cornyn when he suggested a future Senate hearing about the convictions of two Texas border patrol officers. (That's executive branch business, son.) Consider the attorney general's inability to explain why Kyle Sampson pushed ahead with a plan to do away with Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys, if as he claimed, Gonzales didn't approve it. (That's between me and the president and Kyle Sampson, son.) Consider Gonzales' skirmish with Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer over who bore the burden of proof at the hearings. (How can there be a burden of proof when you have no authority to sit in judgment over me, son?) And listen to him tell Republican Sen. Charles Grassley: "I'm here to provide what I know, what I recall as to the truth in order to help the Congress help to complete the record."


Ultimately, this hearing & Gonzales' performance affirms the need for senate oversight, making Gonzales and Bush look like bad managers to the tune of "Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job." I agree that he "elevated the Bush legal doctrine of "Because I said so" into a public spectacle." But I disagree that that helps the administration in any way. He laid bare their "because I said so" and, remember, though your actions should always embody that principle you should never shed light on it.
You can't pull off this level of bullshit while sweating.


I think the battle over the supreme powers of the president will play out more with Rove. I do think they will sacrifice Gonzales but I think they're only fighting this hard to keep him because having the next AG confirmed will be gruesome. Ditto for Wolfowitz. All in all, pretty galling what these guys are getting grilled for when they regularly facilitated torture, racism and violence.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

C es por Cobayo


Long before conceiving of names for children I had the names for my next guinea pigs picked out.

Noor Epinephren &
Sarah Tonin

I do think my daughter is cute. Truth be told, I am a sucker for her cuteness. Just ask me what time it is? 1 a.m., 1:30 a.m., 2: 40 a.m., 3 a.m., 3:30 a.m. . .

I must say, however, that I think guinea pigs are outrageously adorable. (and, no guinea pig has ever kept me up all night.) Just look at it. All belly with tiny feet, cute little eyes and a friendly nose sticking out. Anchored by a belly. Really, the overwhelming majority of a piggie is belly. They are necessarily rotund. A guinea pig defies the very idea of a waist. I have only love for such a creature.

I will remember that portly, hairy mammals (mostly belly with stubby appendages) are loved by all good people (even those with allergies.) Pouring myself into my bathing suit I shall channel the piggie.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

B es por la berenjena

It's a better day.

Our friend Rivolta has saved over $2000 by quitting her smokey habit. Let's say that again. $2000!! Oh, yeah, and her health is better too.

"Mi Tejana", on the other hand, just counted up the amount we pissed away on parking tickets in the past 3 months. (just under 85 euros) Scary. Most of these are mine, actually, as I like to stop by with the girl to visit "Le Mama" usually on Mondays before her student group meeting.

Moving right along

I have a new crush: Farai Chideya who hosts NPR's "News & Notes." I love her because she is the only media host I hear who says "race & gender" more than I do. She's smart & I really, really love smart girls. Plus, she's super cute. Look: We had problems getting to sleep last night. I mean problems.

And I know, I know that I am the problem and the best part of that is it means I am the solution. Blah, blah, blah. I find myself, again, making grand promises of consistency after this next trip. (In this case, to a sister's wedding this weekend in denver.) In my life, there is always a trip coming up. And soon.

Problems: Kicking, crying, whining, cajoling, talking, smiling, nursing, kicking, nursing, pinching, whining, nursing, sleeping, nursing, nursing, nurs. . .sleeping, KICKING.

The mommies woke up bitchy with each other and generally growly with the child. Who had the audacity to rub her eyes as if she, too, were sleepy. You don't get to be sleepy, I tell her. Then I look at my partner, "Grizzly Bear", and bitch about the sleeping arrangements that I also maniacally insist on. I know I have problems and I know that, in this case, I am the problem.

I've begun my own geoquiz. I printed off outline maps of the various continents and even of the states for me & "Carmalita" to fill out. Surprisingly, we did pretty good with the states, except for the eastern seaboard. I impressed myself with south america, was pretty good at choice regions of asia (guess which ones?) and absolutely *sucked* at countries in africa. Oh, but I forgot. No individual countries there. That's why people just talk about "going to Africa"

Ah. . . Need to get this posted & head off to work.


Monday, April 16, 2007

A es por Alfabeto y Aye Dios Mio!



The people have spoken. . .All 13 of you. (How many of those votes came from me at various computers around Wichita? Hmm. . . Trade secret)

And we're working through the alphabet in Spanish. In keeping with my reread of 1984 we will strictly follow Big Brother's official Spanish alphabet.

Okay, okay, okay. . . This is all about to be renamed as "A Pretty Bad Post"
I've been trying to write something--anything--that would be witty or funny to keep a light atmosphere on the blog. But unfortunately, I keep coming back to this delightful note:

I think we're all going to die.


"Powerpuffgirl" (we're still searching for a nickname for S.) and I were watching this documentary on PBS yesterday about the historical/philosophical/political roots of al qaeda. thumbs up for starting decades back, showing how individuals influenced each other, were influenced by philosophers, state fascism & torture. thumbs down for focusing on particular arabic words, exoticizing them & creating a "foreign, terroristic lexicon" of words like "madrassa" (a.k.a. school, assholes.)

And there was this point where they talked about how al qaeda wanted to bring the western battle to the east and some supposed notes suggested the three best locations would be afghanistan, iraq or somalia. Provoke the west and they will respond like cowboys.

This is when I buried my head in "PhD-to-be" girl's chest and wept.
I wish they had also shown the philosophical & historical influences on western actors (cheney, bush I & II, clinton, blair) that supported their ideas & actions. Cultural ideas like "manifest destiny."

so that's the emotional background I've got as I try to write something about the Duke rape case that isn't predictable, shrill and defeatist. Everything is so cliched at this point but not writing about it all feels cowardly. And then there's Imus. And just now hearing about the shootings at Virginia Tech.
And then, of course, there's the advocate in me that says, "Do you think anything new is going on? Don't you know that women are harmed in countless ways every moment?"

And all of this is lapping against a feeling that I don't get to feel hopeless because I'm a mommy now. Of course mommies must persevere or what's the point? And also, having been granted my most fiercely-held dream (having wished/prayed/worked) of being a mommy, who am I exactly to feel hopeless?

Sigh.
Sigh.
Sigh.

And hopeless isn't even the right word because I don't look at the people I love and say, nope--still no feelings of hope. It's more like this sense that there's a pointless, endless violence.

Adding to my feelings of despondence. . .

  • I saw the movie "Children of Men" this weekend. It's something I'd love to watch again because it had multiple levels, critiquing xenophobia/'terrorism' etc. But I'd like to see it on a day when I'm not planning on having any more kids or not planning on having feelings of love for children, because it is horrific. I won't actually talk about why. It's beyond graphic. Additionally, why is it called children of MEN? Women are completely commodified and erased. It's weird and I'd like to see it again to explore it's weirdness except I would like to maintain my will to live.
  • I bought a swimsuit this weekend. That surely speaks for itself and I'm a fat woman who is politically informed, feminist, generally loving of my body and still I'm not saying anything else. What is wrong with me?

Okay, I'm cutting it off here.

that list was my last attempt at injecting some sense of humor back in to the blog and instead it came out as self-hating and pathetic.

We'll try another day. Maybe "B" will be for "Basta!"

Monday, April 9, 2007

Z for zum

Zum: An approximate unit of measurement anywhere between 14/19ths and 3/27ths. As in, "sure, I'll have zum"

Well, Z is actually for Zucchini but readers in England will think that's cheating because how could Z be for Courgette?

I have several things to catch everyone up on but first is the matter of this blog.

I have been cleared for continued blogging by Those Who Know Best. This only encourages me in my nonsensical, random and useless posting. But my delusions of grandeur make me crave for a theme, not unlike TAL. At the same time in the name of the new democracy that is the internet I offer up a poll. (what I should have done with the books post, no? Since some people (RS) sneak a peek but never comment)

Please vote for your favorite option.
El Alfabeto--The alphabet again. This time in Spanish! This will get us exciting posts like "P is for Pera" Good times & an opportunity to expand my vocabulary base. Remember, this could be the crucial choice if you'd like me keep ahead of khubz.

A Poet A Day--Likely to be everyone's automatic choice, fear not, this would not be everlasting. Only long enough to celebrate National Poetry Month (April.) Remember, Julia Alverez is a poet!

The New Math--Please don't vote for this option. Consider it the Dennis Kucinich of the candidates. Very interesting. Perhaps some cutting edge new ideas. But no longevity. Really, I've got Khubz learning that counting up means "70, 435, 152, 35" and counting down means "35, 152, 435, 70" and that's it. (Ten points to anyone who can decipher my new math)

Fruit ranked by fiber content--This closely beat out fruit ranked by glycemic index in the primaries. I cannot make any promises about content but will give fair warning that any fiber-based theme will likely be result in numerous graphic descriptions of bodily fluids (or solids) basket tags.

A country each day--Really, did you know that the capitol of Eritrea is Asmera? Neither did I. Shouldn't you know that? Shouldn't I? Why don't we know that? Don't we all listen to NPR? And country/capitol is so. . . 7th grade. What we all really want to know is: What kind of fruit do they have going on in Eritrea? Turns out, fruit is not generally a daily consumable, but the cactus pear is right up as a celebratory dish.

What comes after Z?
El Alfabeto
A Poet A Day
The new math
Fruit ranked by fiber content
A country each day
pollcode.com free polls


If my writing will be besmirched as nonsensical & random anyway, I might as well play along. Accompanying the theme will be an unrelated story (no votes on this) such as
  • The girl is finally eating mangoes & enjoying them. She is perhaps my child. What will she think of the homemade (and slightly grainy) carrots?
  • S. gets a codename--what will it be?
  • We are recommitting to frugality--how cheap can we get?
  • Khubz seems to be doing fine at daycare with her half/half--what kind of poop will show up in her pants?
  • Unless there are a flood of comments, it looks like I'll be taking Big Brother to the Crime Victims Rights Conference in Wichita this week. Will I be too freaked out (or too drugged by unfettered access to cable) to read it?
  • We seem to have been doing well at night but last night I woke up to the girl pinching, pulling and chomping down on a newly formed blister on my nipple. I did what any bad mommy would do and yelled "OUCH! STOP IT!" as I reared back, yanking my breast out of her mouth. Her mama reflexively pulled Khubz closer and cooed, "it's okay. it's okay" I then realized she was trying to calm me. Not the infant child. But the half-crazed mommy. In my defense, I was not gripping a fork or otherwise preparing for battle. Will Khubz be in counseling before she's walking? Will Khubz sleep like the angel child she is for her Mama while I'm gone? Will I find out that the "family bed" I usually enjoy pales in comparison to a queen-sized-holiday-inn-standard with cable on all night long?

Stay tuned, won't you?

And remember to vote early & often--in this case it's not a felony!

Sunday, April 8, 2007

We interrupt our normally scheduled broadcast

for some new letters

WTF?

In posting my previous "Y" post I am flagged with this message:

You have been flagged as a possible spam blog.

What's that? Let's click on the bubble & find out.

What Are Spam Blogs?
As with many powerful tools, blogging services can be both used and abused. The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site. (emphasis mine)

UnFingBelievable.

I'd like to not take that personally but if the shoe fits. . .

Here's the message alert again.

Thanks, blogger. Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Remember what I say about my excess self-esteem? It's all thanks to blogger.

This post brought to you by the letter "Y"

This post is dedicated to my Mom who always told me someday I would use a venn diagram.

Friday, April 6, 2007

x is for xenophobia or she changes everything she touches & everything she touches changes

so newt is apologizing in spanish and i just want to ask. . .why bother? if assimilation is the high and mighty god why bother?

when khubz was a few weeks old i camped out in iowa for about 10 days. this was in october of last year and it was the run up to the election. iowa politics are always fun but the ads on tv are relentless!

i especially remember an ad attacking a dem incumbent, boswell. apparently boswell had been smuggling mexicans into the country illegally so they all could smoke up some meth, have a gay sexcapade marathon (after which they all try to destroy the family by trying to marry each other) and then, once the meth high wore off, bomb some public buildings in the name of allah. i am not kidding.

i felt like it was a visual aid for an ISMs training and this was illustrating the point that "isms work in concert with each other. the systems of oppression support one another and have impact on individuals that are difficult to parse out. you can't be working with a survivor living in poverty and neatly separate out 'this harm was caused by sexism. that harm was caused by classism' etc."

and i looked at my little child looking so bright (in pictures i now see she was splotchy and her head was still a bit misshapen. it was a 52 hour labor, remember) like all the right pieces of destiny and possibility. And I felt like she was the other side of those systems of oppression working in concert. Her being was their opposite.

she is just a little baby. and, frankly, not here to answer for those harms or fix them. but their very existence questions her very existence. (um, except the meth part. i don't see that one as inextricably linked, inshallah)

an arab/latina girl child (and white, too, bringing down the master race) come into the world to two women makes her a very, very queer of one sort or another. she collides with all these systems by her very being. and i felt so sad at the time (frightened of all the world) because i feared these systems would chew her up before she could spot them and that they would be her undoing.

in fact she has come into the world despite them
and that is a triumph
right now she is oblivious to them
but her mommies are not
& that is why mother is a verb.
when she learns the word 'no'
she will also learn who to say 'no' to (us & others too)
her existence cannot be undone
the world has already changed

Thursday, April 5, 2007

W is for What Bad Mommies

Why?

How else could you describe mommies who opportunistically capitalize on their moderately-sick daughter's drug-induced slumber? But we did. Shamelessly. And the girl slept. Not while she was attached to my body, not in the bed with us and not even in the room with us. She slept and she stayed asleep. Which means that that "W" is also for "Wihoo!"

The down side to that is that Khubz is still sick. I picked her up from daycare yesterday and she had a low-grade fever. We got home, greeted mama who was napping upstairs, nursed, accidentally gagged her with some benadryl (this time it wasn't me), vomited up all the milk she'd just sucked down + a belly full of swallowed mucus that had collected through the day. This resulted in a milky-vomit with a snotty texture I had not known was possible. And lots of it. Snotty, milky vomit all over her. Snotty, milky vomit all over me. Snotty, milky vomit all over our bed. It was something.

So Khubz & I got in the bath and quickly. S. changed the bedsheets and then we all went downstairs, nursed some more, took some benadryl very, very slowly & carefully and slept most of the evening in my arms or with S. About 9 o'clock she was officially in the great sleep. I took her up to her crib where she snoozed until about 3 the next morning. (note the above Wihoo! worth repeating)

She didn't have a fever through the night or this morning but S. is taking her to the dr. this morning. She'd been tugging on her ears at daycare. Then last night she was tugging on her ears. So it's time to have her ears checked & just given the once-over.

In other news. . .for anyone who wasn't frightened by my description of snotty vomit, check out this site: cheney's life in the bushes . Cheney is apparently frequently pictured lurking in bushes or shrubbery of some sort. It's completely wacky. But for the love of god don't scroll down to see the picture posted in the comment section. No matter what that girl at Rivolta Silenziosa tells you to do. Totally fucking freaky.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

V is for Voluptary


sensuality; person fond of luxury.

Compañeras:
volupty,
venerous,
vulviform

see also:
fruit queer
(image right)
(in front of you)

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

U is for uvula



I love my uvula. Don't you love yours?

p.s. 10 points to anyone who already knew that "Uvula" is latin for "little grape." What a wonderfully fruity, fruity world.

T is for Tortuga

Tortuga deserves to be the word of the day not only because it is fun to say (try it) and not only because I hear Johnny Depp in his pirate voice saying "tortuga" (where will we find a bunch of pirates to crew this ship?) and not only because it rhymes with Joe's favorite word in spanish "lechuga" but also because a little foamy brown tortuga (turtle) saved us on the trip back from iowa this week. The girl woke up and we still had 1 1/2 hours to drive. That little tortuga took a beating but we had minimal crying. She is an unbelievably good baby. Much better than we deserve.
What else?
I'm going to be in Wichita 3 days next week. This means two things (three really.)

  1. The girl is starting on some formula. I don't actually have mommy guilt about this exactly. Except that I see the need for it as springing directly from the fact that i'm still working. If I weren't working I'd have no need to travel without her (unless I chose to) and it wouldn't even be a question. So I'm not worried about the formula. I do fret endlessly about how much/little time i get to spend with her.



  2. I will get a pretty good perdiem. I'll try to take food & save my money. I won't be taking my own car or anything, so the per diem is my only opportunity to save some cash.



  3. I will have an opportunity to sit in my hotel room with the tv on constantly and hopefully read some books. The drive down I was thinking about books I read when I thought I got them (like reading 1984 in high school) and how I love revisiting books/poems/movies like that because I clearly see all the ways that I have changed. So, in the name of a list within a list, here are some top picks I'd like to revisit next week. You're welcome to vote for your favorite but I'll also assume that there are silent masses of you who are reading but not posting. 1984 --though this will be a most creepy, creepy time to read it. not that i expect that to improve any when hillary wins the dem nomination and loses the presidential election to the republican nominee, Beelzebub.

    Nervous Conditions--Actually I read this for a women & imperialism class in college. again, i thought i was so grown. it was a great book but i only read it thinking of my dad. i hope i still see him in it but i hope i see more too (maybe me?)
    Wide Sargasso Sea--if I reread this one, our dear friend Sally will probably force me to reread Jane Eyre (which I should)
    Woman Hating--Andrea Dworkin radicalized me with this book. I will love her forever for it. I don't really feel smart enough to disagree with Dworkin, except that I do disagree with her. She's someone I can disagree with but love her. i love her because i feel like i got to myself more because of her. (okay, so I'm apparently leaning towards woman hating, but i was kind of hoping for a fiction book. Let's continue)

    Stone Butch Blues--When I was on the student board of the YW (as the Arab rep no less. . . guess how many arabs there were as my compitetion??) there was a group from a YW in Minneapolis including a trans woman. There was a big to-do about whether she was a woman, whether she got to participate, whether she got to have a position of leadership etc. I offered to the current leadership that anyone who self-identified as a woman was a woman and we supported the leadership of women. (that's a kind way of me putting all of this. In truth i also said that if someone identifies as 'man' or 'other than woman' they could participate but have no leadership.) I now see "train go sorry" or how I missed the boat. Really, my statement was "we just need to make sure we still support the idea that there can only be two sexes, two genders and there are a set number of ways to coordinate genitals, people and social expectations." Ah, thinking about all that makes me feel old. And like I was too focused on 1970s white feminist writings when it was actually the '90s. I mean, even Mo on DTWOF was ahead of me and she IS a 1970s white feminist. I'm now belaboring the point. I should definitely read Stone Butch Blues.
      Well, go ahead & cast your votes if you like.
      It's bad form to have a post go on & on like this so a few quick additional points
      The child is sick (did I give her something?) and napping off some baby benadryl. In her crib. For the second time today. (the sleeping in the crib part, not the benadryl part.) I am totally proud of myself. I was able to get her alseep in her crib without S. or her strange sleeping powers. Yea me!
      S. is in Florida and I was in Iowa this weekend. Can't wait for her to get back.
      Khubz had some amazing poops which I'm sure I'll tell you all about when the alphabet gets back around to " I" as in "Khubz had a chunk of impacted poop that I couldn't wipe away" or "S" as in "It was just swinging there" or "H" as in "Because it was attached to a hair I had to pull out of her ass!" or "E" as in "It was endless!" Stick around. Good times ahead.