Hot Damn!

Despite all of the bad stuff in the world, and there is admittedly a lot we see these days, there is still the need to relish the good. Not feel guilty about the joy you find in your own life or in those around you.

Perhaps to counter the bad, it is even more important to feel deeply the good when you encounter it.

So, I am reminding you all (we all know this...) to find something, or somethings, or someone, or someones that make you say "Hot damn!" Seek it/them out. Find it.

It may be that it's right under your nose. It could be you, if you remember yourself, after having forgotten yourself for so long. It could be your family, your friends, the book you just read, the realization that you just experienced a perfect day, which is rare. Perfect? That doesn't come along all that often.

The point being that it is a part of all of us, a part of the human condition, to feel joy. Unmitigated, unconditional joy. And, it makes no difference how it is manifested. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else. Maybe that makes it even more intense, or special, or exquisite--that it is your own intimate connection to something either outside of yourself, or within, that moves you. To be moved! To be awakened! No longer sleepwalking from one moment to the next, rather feeling a moment or moments in a day so strongly, so deep within your heart, that it's as if you are connected to the infinite, however you may define that.

You either have to seek this out, or be open to it coming to you. I won't wager on which is more likely. I think if you're not open it will never happen. If you don't seek it out you will never find it. Maybe it's a tie. It is active. It is going about with your eyes open. It is being ready in your heart.

You have to make room for good to flood into you. Nature abhors a vacuum and wants to fill it. Isn't that remarkable? If you make the space, it will be filled. It just will.

You have to get quiet too. You can't hear the angels singing if you are too loud. You can't be touched by a rare, elusive creature if you scare it away with chatter, with whining, with rancor, and discord.

The world is too loud. You can't counter that with more noise.

And you deserve to say hot damn! Everyone does. This includes you.

At one point in my life I was depressed, terribly depressed. Point is probably the wrong word. I was depressed for years. I had a huge sense of the injustice of the world and thinking about it propelled me forward, but was no impetus for me actually doing anything about anything, because I was depressed. It also allowed me to ignore myself and not face my problems and get myself together. Depression is so tiring. The work to get up out of it is immense, and sometimes feels like a sisyphean task. But, you just gotta roll that stone up the hill any way. That is the nature of life.

Because of my sense of the cruelty of the world and seeing the inequity, I somehow forgot that I had a right to be happy, and that my sadness did nothing to increase joy in the world. I forgot that I was a part of the world, a member of the tribe, that I belonged too. I forgot that my happiness would be a net gain for the whole, because I was a part of it.

I'm not preaching the prosperity gospel here. I don't think it's all just about you, you selfish bastard... I just mean that sometimes we forget that being joyful, and finding things that make us joyful, and seeking it out with earnestness, allows the world to dull a little. I think your joy, my joy, his joy, her joy all contributes to more joy for everyone. It becomes exponential because it is infectious. It brushes off on others as you float through the world smiling. It warms others as you glow near them.

Try to find something that makes you say hot damn! Or whatever exclamation would make sense for you. Try to find something that makes you feel deeply and reconnects you to your heart. You need this.

The world needs this.

Hot damn...

Bad to the Bone, Again...

We love our little Scion.  It has loads of leg room for the kids.  It has a seat that feels like a seat and not a semi-lounge chair, and has loads of head room for me with my tall torso.  It works for our little family.

We now have a replacement car, as our car is being repaired after what we thought was a minor fender bender.  Turns out, though, that we'll have the loaner car for a few days.

We're driving around in this now.

The kids are digging it and asked us if we could buy it.  They asked in all sincerity and without any irony or humor.  I feel so ridiculous in this thing.  It's fun.

I might have to find a creek with the bridge out so I can take the kids sailing over it screaming, "Yee haw!!" at the top of our lungs.

Yes, I do remember the Dukes of Hazzard fondly.  Why do you ask?

Ahhh Ooooo...

Werewolves of London!

Happy Halloween--enjoy your weekend!

Solid Gold Dancers with Adam Ant!!

Oh my God, this is classic!  Why did I not see the wit of this when I was an angsty  teenager?  Why did I not see the fun of the kitsch?  It is only now that I can appreciate stuff like this.  I couldn't back then when I was lamenting the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest and all of my peers (most of my peers) were gung ho about Reagan and his policies.

Look at what I missed!!

Enjoy you Goody Two Shoes you.  Have a fun weekend!

Bad to the Bone or Another Day of Running Errands

We had to go get the car's emissions tested yesterday. Illinois law mandates it every so often for all cars, although it would probably be more efficient and effective if the testing was saved for older cars alone. But, we went.

My daughter assured me that she was fine dressed in her 1880s prairie dress which she uses to pretend she is Mary or Laura or an unknown pioneer girl out on the prairie trying to make her way breaking up sod and battling grasshoppers. She was going to be fine in her red calico with white overdress and didn't need to change before hand. Besides, we could all stay in the car so it wouldn't matter any way!

Yeah, except when we got there we saw that everyone had to get out of their cars and go to a little room while the car was tested. Uh oh... I reassured my daughter that she could still get away with going around town in dress up clothes, depending on the clothes, and it would be OK.

My son meanwhile was cracking up and thought the imminent embarrassment of his sister was hilarious. My daughter actually laughed too and took it in stride.

Turns out we didn't have to get out of the car. Instead, the creepy worker guy let me get out and sit in back while he sat in the driver's seat and conducted the test. He went on to insult the quality of our car and then said weird rambling things that we all couldn't quite make out.

I asked the kids what they thought of him as we left and they told me he was creepy. My daughter described him as having milky blue eyes (descriptive!). My son asked what was wrong with him which led to a lengthy discussion about creepiness, instincts and feelings about people, social awkwardness vs. malicious intent, not being afraid to hurt feelings or offend anyone to keep yourself safe, having the right to not get in an elevator or cross the street or stay with a crowd of people if someone makes you feel creeped out. I told my kids to trust their feelings and instincts.

We talked about why someone might be socially awkward. Why someone might not like people. And then my son fished out my husband's aviator sunglasses from the compartment in the dashboard and put them on.

My son as he looked in the mirror in the sun visor said, "Hey! I look really cool in these! I look like a BUG!! These are so cool."

Some time later after more self-admiring and tilting his head this way and that, he said, "I look like a bug--AND THAT'S AWESOME!!"

A teen sitting in the passenger seat of an oncoming car caught sight of my son and dropped his mouth open and stared as his head pivoted to get more of a view. My son thought this was hilarious and so did my daughter and I and we all laughed and laughed.

Who says running errands can't be fun?

Theresa Andersson

I heard this musician on NPR recently. She is amazing. She uses foot pedals to loop herself, make a recording and then within seconds plays it back and plays with it. She harmonizes with her own voice, she plays a melody and then a solo against it.

It is not just gimmicky, it's good music, I think.

Enjoy.

It's Kinda Like...

It's an imposing looking fruit. Not fruit in the sense of strawberry, or apple though. More like fruit in the botanical sense: the part of the plant that encompasses the seeds.

Sometimes melon is part of the name, and that's going to throw you off. It doesn't really taste like one. It goes by other names as well. I like Kiwano. Sounds a bit like a mens' civic organization or something.

It is also in the cucumber family--a bit of trivia that I left out when explaining about it to my kids. I thought there was a greater chance of them trying this odd spiky fruit originally from Africa if they thought it was more of the strawberry or apple type.

The horned melon or kiwano is a strange, odd, alien looking fruit. If a puffer fish was turned into a fruit, it would look like this and its skin would be orange.

It's like a pomegranate in that the fruit is filled with a copious amount of seeds that are covered in a gelatinous coating. Unlike the beautiful ruby red of the pomegranate, the kiwano seeds are covered in an almost glowing green goop.

Surprisingly, neither one of my kids thought that that was gross in any way.

I, on the other hand, was reminded of the BFG's favorite food--the snozzcumber.

It had a light cucumber taste. I didn't like the seeds, and didn't like digging the seeds out. It was very uckyslush.

Snozzcumber through and through.

Words

I just used the word "constancy" during a conversation with my husband. He thought that was pretty funny and told me that the word is actually "constanconcy".

Some people have a way with words. Others, sort of, not have way...

Houston, We Have a Problem

Me: What's the difference between a meteor and a meteorite? The meteor is glowing in the sky and the meteorite is the rock once it's landed? Is that right?

Husband: Yes. And if it lands on the other side, it's a meteorleft...

Big yucks.

Great America Homeschooling Day

My kids don't "go back to school" because we homeschool. We don't have a start to the year and just keep doing what we do all year round. We do however have a homeschooling day at Great America while other kids are at school and it is still nice out. Great America gets a whole lot of cash that they wouldn't otherwise and the homeschooling attendees get a whole lot of rides because there are no lines! It is shocking how short the wait is for the rides. Some rides had no wait at all and because of it the kids were allowed to go again without even getting out of the car.

We ran into some friends and the kids went on some of the rides with them. We also peeled away to do our own thing sometimes. All total my kids went on rides 17 times. They went on roller coasters, water rafts and spinning cups called the Fiddlers Fling. They dropped from towers, were flung upside down, spun sideways and defied gravity in other interesting, dizzying ways.

I only went on the water raft because I am lame. I am not ashamed to admit that and readily accept how it mirrors my own mother's behavior from my childhood. "We mock the things we are to be!"

My husband went on almost all of the rides with the kids. They all loved it and no one got sick.

While they rode, I sat on a wooden bench in the pleasant shade and read a book and enjoyed all of the other homeschooling kids walking with their friends and their parents and siblings going from ride to ride.

How is it that I am now exhausted?

When You Know You are Right...

Because we sometimes have strong feelings about what we know to be right, I offer this comic relief:

Ha, ha, ha, hee, ho, ha!!

Random Thoughts...

Here are some thoughts I've had over the last week or so. No real link between them all except that some might recognize a bit of absurdity--and who doesn't love the absurd?

• President Barack Hussein Obama is a United States citizen. No--he really is. Perhaps some of the frenetic, hysterical energy questioning his citizenship is a wee bit misplaced and could serve people in a more positive way. Maybe a protest against mountain top removal, strip mining, injustices around the world. I don't know, get creative.
• Three single servings of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (two cones and a sundae) at Great America really shouldn't cost $19.78. The ice cream guy's smile, as I looked shocked, told me that he commiserates but what's one to do?
• I have all of my Mel's Mix material sitting in the garage--just when do I think I will actually put in a garden? Perhaps at the end of the season, just to be contrary...
• Honey not only helps heal skin lacerations received from a nasty collision with a fire hydrant, but a little dab will heal zits too! Not that my skin is ever anything less than perfect, I'm just saying that I've heard this...
• I want my dryer fixed so even on rainy days and when it's cold out, I can wash our sheets and towels. I think it's allowed, even on The Compact. Husband, do you hear?!
• Are we really using more water by hand washing rather than using our dishwasher, which is also broken? This is what I've heard, but I don't quite believe it. Maybe we have to get that fixed too.
• For our 12th anniversary, my husband and I gave each other a high five. Consummate romantics aren't we? Neither one of us made time to get a card or a gift. It's OK. We love each other and know it.
• Laura Ling and Euna Lee are free which is amazing! But, what of the women they were trying to investigate? North Korean women are lured out to China for a better life and then are captured by traffickers and used both for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Does this story ever get covered now? You know, I'm really sick of the world mistreating women, kids, minorities, certain ethnic groups and so on.

What's new with you, cyber people? What are some of your random thoughts? Please share if so inclined.

Your cyber pal,

Laura

Because We Have Charisma...

My sister and brother-in-law are coming over today for a rousing, lengthy game of D-n-D... or is that D & D?... Dungeons and Dragons.

It's a game I never played as a kid when it came out in the 80's because I was too busy being mad at Ronald Reagan and staring at my not-model-shaped nose in the mirror for hours at a time.

It's hard being a teenager, isn't it?

My kids have the basic idea from my husband who did play the game in the 80's. He didn't care what Reagan did and he didn't obsess about his body and different features on his face. He just went along wearing his army jacket and pretending he was a half-elf/fighter/thief/cleric/magic user who always carried the bag of holding. (It has more space on the interior than you would suppose... kind of nifty for taking stuff that doesn't belong to you, or for carrying rope and grappling hooks, 'cause you never know.)

I'm making all sorts of finger food. So, today will be a time of eating and pretending--two great past-times, I think.

Do you have charisma? Oh yeah? How much...

My Kids Right Now... Marching Cadence

Inspired by my son's book, The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead by Max Brooks, my two kids are marching in unison (nice formation) through the house chanting at the top of their lungs, "I don't know but I've been told: zombies smell like stinky mold!!"

I warned the kids that that might be a very provocative thing to yell around zombies and they informed me that they can't be insulted. My son said, "It's like insulting an insect--they won't notice. They don't think like that."

Oh. Well, all right then--carry on.

We might find something more productive to do today, but it will probably not be nearly this fun.

A Literary Classic... a Fun Book From My Childhood

I remember being so entranced with particular books during my childhood. Either the words grabbed me or the images. They all possessed some sort of magical quality and I would read them over and over to myself.

I have searched for some of these books to share with my kids, and was finally sold Giants Come in Different Sizes by Jolly Roger Bradfield at the local library book sale. Well, the library wasn't selling it, but the guy who managed the sale had it at home and sold it to me--he had two copies or he would never had parted with one. He loved it too.

I love when you talk with people and you get happy outcomes--all because you were forthcoming.

I had searched the internet for the book and it had gone out of print, so the only copies that were available at the time were those that people were selling on e-bay for about $90. Amazon now lists that book used for around $27 in not the greatest condition. My kids would never have the joy of that book unless the library sale guy had been willing to part with his for about $5. How nice is that?

Jolly Roger Bradfield also wrote The Flying Hockey Stick which I also adored when I was six. It was also out of print until recently and it is now available again.

The boy in the story creates his own flying machine out of a hockey stick, tape, a fan and a lot of extension cord. My kids will love it although they are fast approaching the age where they will no longer be so captivated by picture books. They aren't such little kids any more and they are both great readers and are both reading large books to themselves.

They are not too old, thankfully, to have me read to them and they will also delight in Barnaby's exploits of creating his flying hockey stick just as I did when I was a kid.

If you can get your hands on any of Bradfield's books for a reasonable price, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the good read with your kids--no matter their age.

Who Loves a Parade?

Yesterday morning, we dropped off our kids to march in their first parade. They marched with their dance studio, and I don't have a single picture of them. I'm quite the photojournalist, aren't I? I do, however, have photos of the other participants.

Lots of emergency vehicles making lots of noise. Who are those guys behind the vehicles?

They're Revolutionary War guys! Hello Piper!

Then there were a bunch of scary clowns. (Not to disparage clowns--I'm sure they're lovely people... but, don't they seem a little creepy somehow?)

Marching bands!

Cheerleaders!

Another marching band!

Hello District 15 Space Shuttle! Coo-el.

Check out the power--look at the rocket booster bottoms thingies.

The Jesse White Tumblers showed up. They are fantastic--a really tight tumbling team. See the floor mats on top of the van?

They set up too far from us! Come back, we can't see you!

Why, hello Harris Bank mascot, Harris.

Is that a steel drum group?

Yes it is.

What fun music. Where are they from?

Ontario, Canada? What?

Cute dogs that were part of something that I didn't really catch...

Another cute pup.

Here's the parade piece de resistance: a church combining their idea of God with uber patriotism... Thankfully, there was only one parade participant like this.

Did you have a good 4th? I hope you had fun whatever you did.

In 3, 2, 1...

Blast off!

My son has been waiting to shoot off this rocket since he got it as a gift at Christmas. On Saturday morning, we went to a big, nearby park.

I give you, my son, the rocket scientist.

My son and his assistant setting up the gear.

Hooking up the battery...

Ready to go. Note the homemade launch pad.

Quickly getting out of the way...

Ready to make contact... in three, two, one...

BLAST OFF!

(Look at the faces--Who is the kid in that picture? It's a tie.)

Trying to spot it in the sky...

Spotted it! Filming and running at the same time...

It's coming down...

There it is!

It landed!

Let's do it again!

No damage. My son just needs to repack the parachute.

Ready to go again...

In three, two, one... BLAST OFF!

Blasted...

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Last night at the pool, we were all in the deep end. My daughter looked at my husband for a long time, dunked her head and then came out to comment, "Dad, your fur goes like this *makes undulating movement with her hand*"

My husband said, "It's hair, not fur..."

A moment later my daughter dunked down again, came up and then said, "And, your back fur goes like this *makes swishing movement side to side with her hand*"

Hilarious.

Both kids jumped off of the high dive and the low board and there my son did a forward flip as well.

Water bugs.

A Lightning Bug by Any Other Name

Last night, I was outside on my back porch and I saw a lightning bug glow for a moment in the branches of our maple tree. A few seconds later I saw it glow again several feet to the right. I looked lower at the grass and did not see a female response. Sorry, Charlie.

The scientific term for them is lampyridae. I never knew this and only just now found out. I grew up calling them lightning bugs or fireflies. We loved seeing them on a hot summer's night and tried to catch as many as we could and stick them in jars and see them glow for a while and then we would release them. They would slowly walk up to the highest point, stick out their wings, pause for a moment, and then fly up and away.

My sister D. lived in Seattle for a while and told me once how she was talking with someone and she brought up fireflies and they had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Isn't that amazing? They don't have fireflies or lightning bugs in Seattle. It wouldn't feel like Summer without them.

I wonder what they have there that I have no idea of--I bet tons.

New poll up to the left: what do you call lampyridae?

Have you seen one yet?

How??

How can four kids ranging from ages 8 to 11 years old reenact scenes from Revenge of the Sith complete with crackling force lightning sound effects and wielding foam and PVC duct tape swords (they can be light sabers if you so pretend) having only had about 4 hours sleep?

How?

Why do I always forget that this is the magical thing that happens during sleep-overs? They need nothing more than movies and popcorn and pancakes the next morning and only a couple of hours of sleep.

The parents, however, may need more. Maybe. Quite possibly, if you stop to think about it. Which I would do if I had more sleep...