Catching up/random thoughts – part 1: autumn, Ebola, emoticons, and griping

By 1 Comment

complaining

Where have you been?! I suppose you could ask the same of me. I took a part-time job. The girls needed new shoes. In addition to my other seven part-time jobs, it’s been busy. You? A lot has happened and been observed. Can we talk? - My basil plant outside died because when summer ends here I stop watering, which is nonsensical because it hasn’t rained here in sixteen years. I stop watering because after school starts, I no longer think about my basil plant. When school starts, it’s … [Read more...]

Thursday thoughts: philosopher Jo

By 3 Comments

Life just goes on.

Last Sunday morning, doing 80mph on the highway heading south to a soccer tournament, I spotted a highway patrol before I could slow down. So did seven other drivers. A few things: 1. Nearly everyone does eighty on a Sunday morning in the Southland because we CAN (it feels like the Autobahn). 2. What the hell is the CHP doing up at 6am on a Sunday? 3. Does he feel powerful shooting fish in a barrel? (Quotas?) Slowing down to 75mph, his headlights blinked as I went by so I braced … [Read more...]

Wednesday words on Paris: je t’aime

By 10 Comments

One of the many lock bridges in Paris.

We got back last Tuesday but, seeing as I haven’t written in two months, what are a few days after the fact, between friends? I’ve missed each and every one of you. So Paris. Have you been? I hadn’t. The husband had work there the week of July 4th and kept trying to convince me that I should go along and take the girls. “Three kids in private school, three kids in private school…” I regularly mumble whenever spending large amounts of money is suggested, but then my smart friends told me to go … [Read more...]

Wednesday’s top ten: car and driver

By 5 Comments

Driving.

(This was supposed to be Tuesday's top ten - alliteration and all that - but things are crazy around here.  You don't care, do you?) Goldie will be driving before long and so when we’re in the car together, I try to impart the wisdom of the road.  She’ll learn plenty in Drivers’ Ed, but there’s so much knowledge to gain by simply taking the wheel, unless Jesus takes it first. My mantra to her is and will continue to be, “Your job is to get from Point A to Point B as safely as you can, not … [Read more...]

Friday fodder: social media, activism, and relativity

By 1 Comment

#bringbackourgirls

By now, most of you have heard or should know about the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in April.  Ramaa Mosley, a Los Angeles mother, used social media in the last few weeks to get the word out by starting with a hashtag - #bringbackourgirls.  Today, not only can Michelle Obama be seen holding up a sign with the hashtag written upon it, but her husband, our president, has sent American troops to Africa to help the Nigerians find their missing … [Read more...]

Wednesday words on parenting: psychobabble and raising the perfect child

By 6 Comments

Mother Teresa

When the girls were younger and another mother would say, either to them or to her own child, “Use your inside voice please,” it had the same effect on me as hearing nails on a chalkboard.  I’d cringe, often visibly.  To a lesser degree, I’d shiver after hearing: It’s a teachable moment. Boundaries. In a restaurant, turning to a 3-year-old: What would you like to order? How did it make you feel after Susie took your toy/poked you in the eye/spat in your food? Gifted, as in, My … [Read more...]