Mail Time

I Guess it Wasn't Such a Long Way

I turned the car radio up and exclaimed "I love this band!"  My seven year old replied "Ug, Mom.  Are you kidding me? It sounds like muppets trying to rock n roll."

Even When No One is Looking

It bothers me that during these protests everyone is filming things. The idea that we have to film for any story to be believed absolutely floors me. It is another way we are sapping the humanity from the world and handing it over to an impartial machine. This is scary because integrity and judgment is what makes us civilized. When we flatly legislate instead of using our best judgment, we create loopholes that allow a person to feel good beating The System, forgetting that the system is us. Laws represent the hopes we hold for society and a dollar represents a human's time and effort on the planet. Circumventing one to take the other isn't beating a system, it's beating people.

While it is easier and faster to present irrefutable video evidence, it makes me utterly sad we need it, like a giant global nanny cam. It is impossible to legislate everything, there is always a horrible way to exploit while staying within the law and always some place a camera is not. We have to put the value back into personal honor.  It's what every one of those signs at Occupy Wallstreet demand.

"I can't cover all the rules for how to treat your brother. They do include; no hitting, stop poking him when he cries, don't pull him around by his arm, don't put playdoh in his hair, help him get a drink and don't let him break his neck climbing the bookcases. But I can't think of all the things you and he haven't though of yet, so lets just say this; Even when I'm not looking, I expect you to use your best judgment and be nice to your brother." -  Everyone's Mom

Fashion Emergency! Help, Advice Kneeded

On a whim I entered a contest I saw advertised on Facebook.  I picked a tiny drawing I liked and submitted it. You can still go vote for it here http://bit.ly/oYozZj  voting continues through 11-13-11 so you can keep going back every day and voting if you like.  This lead to an actual show at the Houston Museum of African American Culture.  I submitted two pieces. Bombay Sapphire Vodka Artisan Series is sponsoring the show and the afterparty in conjuction with the grand opening Gala of HMAAC.  It's a juried show and two artists will be selected to participate at Miami Basel this December.

These are the two pieces I submitted

06.02.11

04.24.11

They are from the Tiny Drawings series and the only way to appreciate exactly how small they are it to see them in person.

I think I'm going to go to the after party.  The question now is; what does one wear to her first show, down-town, in the Museum District, in the fourth largest city in the nation, where people are likely to be wearing sparkly evening gowns, and the party is thrown by a vodka company, and the prize is an entrance into the biggest art show in the country, and she is wearing a leg brace hip to ankle?  I mean really? What the hell do I wear? Do I get all Lady Gaga with it or just opt for a quiet little black dress cut very short?   One thing is for sure, high heels are out.

Socks

This brace covers my whole leg.  I'm waiting for the stitches to come out before I attempt to wear pants under the thing. I'm trying to figure out a way to wear tall warm socks with shorts that doesn't look ridiculous or inappropriate (so far, unsuccessful.)  That or I think I need to go over to the goodwill and get a pair of jeans to cut one of the legs off.  The second option sounds good, but I can't try pants on with the thing on my leg.  I hope it warms up today.

Jack is wearing socks for the first time he can remember.  He thinks they are great, he socked around the wood floors for a bit this morning dragging his little heels all over and he keeps looking down at them and wiggling his toes.  Yep, your toes are still there.

Frankenee

In which I talk about my surgery (not very exciting unless you've googled ACL injury/are about to have the same proceedure.)

The bone patellar bone ACL reconstruction surgery I had after the complete tear in ACL from playing roller derby, performed by Dr. Walter Lowe in Houston, TX, went very well.  I've relied on wonderful friends and neighbors to get through the first week despite my desire to do everything on my own.  So, if you're at this blog post for insight before you have it done,  please get someone to help you for the first week, you will need it.  I had the proceedure on Thursday I went back to the doc today and they gave me a 60° bend in my brace and unwrapped the gauze.  It feels wonderful to be able to bend it some and even better to have all the wrapping off.  It wasn't as scrambled as I expected it to look under there and I'm a week away from getting the stitches out and being able to have a good soak in the tub.  Here's what it looks like 5 days after surgery (today) while the brace is off.  You can click to embiggen.

Thank you Kiki, for going with
 and taking the gross photo.

The pain of the first two days after surgery are something to sleep through.  The physical therapy regime is full and difficult but will get me back up and going fast so I'm eager.  In an earlier post, I misspoke, I do have two screws in there, one will turn into bone eventually and the other is titanium and MRI/metal detector safe.  I'll keep posting the progress and the evolution of the scar that I don't think I'll mind.  I'm viewing it as one would view a tattoo, it's a permanent reminder of a time in my life that I loved (more on that later when I can wrap my head around my gratitude.)

"Then The Dam Broke, The Whole World Recognized It"

Tiny Matadore

This morning Jack is chasing the dog around the house with a tiny baby doll stroller.  The dog is rearing and jumping and running and Jack is squealing and doubling back to get her.  At times the dog is wild eyed with almost getting rammed and dodging out of the way at the last moment and Jack is perfectly giddy running as fast as he can and barely missing.  In my head he is yelling "Olé!"

Penny Commerce

Ella will remember the Ice Cream Man.  We never had one, because I grew up on the edge of the hood, in the 70s, where a fella with iced goodies and a pile of money might get shanked.  We did have a little convenience store up the street called Park-It-Market and someone tried to rob it once but the owner was a black belt and he beat the crap out of the robber and held him until the police came and nobody ever tried it again.  The place is still there, though I don't know if John still owns it.  In grade school, I used to get $1.00 every day for an .85cent lunch.  I'd save the other .15cents ever day and on Friday I'd take my .75cents up to Park-it Market and pour over the candy.  I could afford two .35cents candy bars or one candy bar and six smaller candies.  A Peppermint Patty was always in there, and the smaller stuff was crap like Bottle Caps, Laffy Taffy, and Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum.   But on very rare occasions, I'd buy just one whole bag of circus peanuts using up all the money.  I never could save up two weeks at a time.

Childhood Memory

Goody Two Cups

I was supposed to take a photo of a bad habit. Since it seemed too difficult to capture myself yelling "Shit!" in front of the children, I opted to turn to the few cups of coffee which without, I get seriously crabby. (I know lame, but the truth is I'm too tired to try to make a habit out of things that are bad for me.)

Ambushed

Hey you! Other Mommy Blogger! I surf the blogosphere between the wee hours of 'The Baby Finally Fell Asleep While Jumping on the Couch-O-Clock' and a 'Quarter Past I Can't Keep My Eyes Open Any Longer'.   So if I click on your blog and suddenly Shania is singing about how Today is my Day, loud as shit because the last person to use the computer was a seven year old who thinks the volume should always be on eleven, then you are ensuring I can never read your blog.  Because, like a jack in the box, something you thought was totally cute popped out of it's box and scared the crap out of my kid.  Stop it.

The One Year Old Blues

In the Key of A

Fruit

I've taken soo many photos, my old Casio Exilim 7.2 is busting at the seams.  It doesn't always turn on and the battery only stays in when the little door is shut because the piece that holds it in broke off.  I always liked that it fit in my pocket and turned on super fast allowing me to get pretty good pictures because the action is fast and even the flash is pretty fast.  But I've always thought the quality was sort of poor.  I think I was spoiled by my clunky old Fuji.



My Fuji Finepix 4700,  I pulled it back out to take photos of my dying camera, and I snapped this one of Jack and confirming it's quality is better.  It uses hexes instead of square pixels and creates a clearer image with less computing (2.4MP.)  It also has a higher ISO which I love, especially snapping a busy toddler.






I took today's photo with my phone but I intend to do some wonderful things with my trusty hex-pixeled Fuji.

First Plumb

Art Cars at Trader Village

From a low angle