Bad Moon on the Rise

It's been a mighty long time since last I wrote. An entire month came in like a lamb and out like a lion. We've never had the best of luck at the end of October. I can't tell you why. I think a bad moon must arise around that time for us. It's not that anything crazy has happened. We've just had some trouble with the landlord who lost his cool on Friday. Not the best way to keep your current (and only) tenants happy. We've been very unhappy with him for a while. The thing is ... we have a great apartment, but it's been falling down around our ears lately. The stove, ice maker, dining room ceiling and bathroom shower tiles need fixing. The kitchen sink has been leaking since we moved in. The stove has needed fixing for well over a year now. It just doesn't get done. And it won't get done. We're paying for working appliances each month. He hasn't even looked at the dining room ceiling or the bathroom tiles. He offered to have Chris fix everything and deduct that from our rent but Chris started his new job and I'm sure our landlord won't pay for the labor that would go into doing all of that. And the bathroom needs serious work. I just would like to live in a place where everything works. And where our landlord gives a shit. Well, he gives a shit when he doesn't get his rent exactly on the first because he has a mortgage to pay. Which isn't our problem and I told him that. He's decided that he no longer will be speaking with me but will be speaking to Chris. It's that good cop/bad cop thing that Chris and I have going on with most people. He's the Robert DeNiro to my Joe Pesci.

Anyway ... enough about our landlord.

I started a blog for Storming Heaven where we'll have our collaborators write about their processes, research, thoughts on the project, etc. The show won't open until January 2011 but I think this will be a cool thing for our people to contribute to.

Chris's job has been going well. He's starting to call businesses today and I haven't heard how everything's gone yet but I'm sure he's been very suave to the people in the market for new insurance.

Clara finally went down for her afternoon nap a few moments ago. She's been rebelling against it as of late, which bums me out, because I love the respite from being "mom" for the hour or so that she snoozes. I get a break in the morning, but ... I look forward to the afternoon break just as much. She's a pleasure but it's nice to focus on myself for a spell. She is SO close to walking. She's been taking a couple of steps now and again and she's getting really good at balancing on her own two feet. She's taken her time on the physical stuff but when she finally gets around to it, she's got it nailed and perfect. I've seen 10 month olds walking but they're very chaotic and kind of fling themselves from point A to point B. I don't think Clara will be like that. She's too cautious for that type of reckless behavior. =) She does, however, like to make a devastation out of whatever room she's in. She'll systematically pull all her toys out of her toy basket, all the cds/dvds off of the shelves, all the books out of her bookshelf, etc. She, on occasion, will put things back where they go, but ... throwing everything every which way is much more satisfying. She really likes to study her books and the cd/dvd covers. She finds it very entertaining, which I'm happy about. I hope she takes to reading like her mum and dad.

What else, what else ... she's been going to a Gymboree class once a week, which she loves. Songs, fun teachers, stuffed clowns and puppets, parachutes, bubbles, balls, instruments, things to climb ... it's a lot of fun. 45 minutes a week and she gets to hang out with other babies her age and she works on her motor skills while she's there.

Well ... I'm going to bid you adieu for now because my durned carpal tunnel problem is rearing its unattractive head right now.

Bump on a Log

I love Saturday mornings but feel a little bit like a bump on a log today. Clara's taking her nap, Chris is picking up donated yard sale stuff from Ms. Sarah Stec ... we're having a GreyZelda Garage (Grey-Rage) Yard Sale fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 17th and Sunday, Oct. 18th here at our pad. Our company members are donating their sundries and fabulous household goods so that our little theatre company can raise some funds for our 2011 season.

In other news ... Chris will be employed as of October 15th. We're very excited though it will be sad to not be able to share the parenting duties during the day with him and I know his heart will break a little bit because he won't be able to spend time with the cutest one year old in the world.

She's been learning to walk, by the way. We went to Payless yesterday and picked her out a couple of sturdier, flat bottomed shoes to aid with her motoring. All of her movement is coming all at once ... she's finally starting to get crawling down, too, and becomes very frustrated when she can't get to where she'd like to go. She had a bit of a meltdown a couple of nights ago because she had crawled a few inches forward but then reverted back to her backwards pushing and she lost it. She started throwing herself around on her rug and couldn't be soothed so we decided that an early bedtime was in order. She went right to sleep and woke up refreshed and optimistic the next morning.

We'll be heading to the Hillsdale County Fair on Sept. 28th and will take in the festivities on the 29th and 30th. I'm excited to show Clara all of the barnyard animals and rides. I think she'll enjoy herself. We'll be able to see the fam and the Amburgeys and maybe some other folks, so ... yay for the Greatest Fair on Earth.

On my end ... I've been adding a standardized patient gig at Northwestern University to my part-time responsibilities. It's been a lot of fun so far and I really like the people who are in charge of it and the other standardized patients I've met so far. I'll probably have to have someone watch Clara after Chris goes to work which means we'll need to pay that person a little bit and it'll probably end up that I won't really make as much as I'd like but I still plan on continuing it because I think it's pretty fun and educational. Plus, Clara should get used to the fact that sometimes Mommy and Daddy head out to places without her but we will always come back.

What else, what else ... we're getting adapters together for Storming Heaven and I hope to have a meeting with all of them soon. It looks like they might all be male, but if I can line up four female directors for the project then it'll all even out, I hope. We're going to have a GreyZelda company meeting on Oct. 12th, too.

And ... that's about it. I'm going to wrap this up because I realized that I put the wrong dates up for the Grey-Rage sale on facebook. Talk to you later, cats.

Where You'll Find Me ...

...in case you were looking ...

It's been tricky for me to remember to write blogs on here lately. I'm sure I'll do it again, no worries, but if you need more immediate updates on yours truly, you can find me here.

A Crow and her Baby

Y'all probably know this already but Morgan Manasa is truly a cool she-cat. Long ago and far away she posted a status update on facebook and said that the first five people to respond would get something original created by Ms. Morgan. I responded because, you know, why the hell not? When I went to see Point of Contention's The Wonder last Tuesday, I congratulated Morgan after the show and she pulled the Mama Crow and her Baby out and I was ever so delighted. We're still in the process of figuring out where we want to hang it (we're thinking above the door in the baby's room) but we're so happy to have it. Thank you again, Morgan.

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I mentioned in my last blog post that I went to see Tori last Monday. I went with a new Tori-phile friend, Diana, and we had a nice time seeing the show together. It wasn't my favorite ... she played a lot of songs that are on my "Least Favorite Tori Songs" list. Cars and Guitars, for example, off of The Beekeeper. Absolutely one of my least liked songs. Our seats were in row FF so we weren't far from the stage at all, which was cool. The whole thing was ok. Not as long as I would have liked. Not as magical (for me, anyway) as I would have liked.

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Clara just woke up from her late morning nap. She's playing on her little rug with her Shapes Barn. She started pulling herself up yesterday which I'm very excited about! She held on to my hands, put her legs under her, and pushed up to a standing position. She's also figuring out how to go forwards and not just backwards when she's in crawling position. She goes a couple of moves forward and then several moves backwards but, hey, she's getting it.

Here's a typical day with Ms. C:

5am - She wakes up. Has a nursing breakfast. Chris changes her and puts her back to sleep in her crib. We go back to sleep.
8am - Clara wakes up again. Nurses. She and I get up and come into the office. I check email, bloggy blogs, etc and she plays on her rug with her toys for a while. On her tummy initially. I eat cereal, breakfast, etc.
8:30am - We go bug Chris to wake up. He gets up, makes coffee, feeds Siwitch, etc.
9am - I feed Clara some Yo-Baby with her multivitamin mixed in. She gobbles the whole thing down because it's her favorite food. She loves cold things.
9:30am - We hang out in the office with Chris for a spell while he checks on any job leads.
10am - We turn on Sesame Street and Clara plays with toys while she watches her favorite guy, Elmo, and all of his friends. Today she spent a lot of the hour holding on to the coffee table and standing. She dances a bit these days to the music that comes on, too.
11am - I change her into her "day outfit" and nurse her again. She oftentimes falls asleep while she's nursing and I put her into her crib and have some "me" time or "alone" time with Chris.
12pm - Clara wakes up and plays with her toys. Sometimes we read a story.
12:30pm - Lunch. Clara often will have some cold jarred fruit, leftover chicken/pork/what-have-you, L'il Crunchies or her Yogurt Bites or Dried Apple Pieces, etc.
2 pm - More nursing
3pmish - She might take an afternoon nap. We sometimes take a walk around the neighborhood before hand, do errands, etc.
5pm - More nursing.
6:30pm - Supper. We try to work in some veggies at supper time. We always work in some veggies, but whether she eats them or not is always the mystery of the day.
7pm - Watch The Sopranos.
8pm - Nurse Clara and put her in her "nighttime" outfit. She falls asleep pretty quickly, we put her in her crib, and then have "alone" time.
10pm - We go to bed. Early these days. I often read. Currently reading Mists of Avalon. I've realized that my reading list has looked like Carmella Soprano's as of late.

Clara will wake up every so often during the night but all we need to do is put her pacifier in and she goes right back to sleep. She rolls over on her side and that's our clue that she's definitely down for the count. We've also been turning on her sound/projection machine and have it set to "Ocean" which puts us down for the count quite well, too.

And, in between all of the schedule events, we change her, play with her, talk with her, kiss and hug on her, practice her standing, etc. The day is quite full of all things Clara. It's very nice.

Merman

I sing this to Ms. C and now hum it in my head in hopes that she'll go down for her afternoon nap. She just woke up and started wailing after I had just put her down in her crib but I know full well that she's tired. She didn't sleep much during her late morning nap, so ... it's time for her to go down, down, down for a few.

I'll make this short, too, actually, because I might like to lay myself down for a spell ... read a little and hopefully nod off while Clara sleeps. Sleep when they sleep. Exactly. I sat down to write a big blog about the Tori show last week and Chris meeting Rowdy Roddy Piper yesterday, but I feel very tired. How dull sleepiness is to write about. And read about, I'm sure. I've bored myself already.

Ah well ... I'll try to write more later.

At the End of a Long, Lonely Day or Hillbilly Haven and Hilton Head (Part Three)

I put Ms. Tori up there singing Peeping Tommi because, yes, I'm going to go see her at the Chicago Theatre on Monday, August 3rd. I couldn't resist picking up a ticket because I've never missed a Tori show in my area since becoming a fan in 1996. I'm not a big fan of her newest album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, but, hell, I'm going anyway. I'll be 10 rows from the stage. Dammit, I'm excited.

So ... I'm totally slacking off here and I hope to come back and fill in the blanks when I get a spare minute, but I just want to try to wrap this up since it's almost been a MONTH! since our trip ended. It is ree-dick-oo-loss that it's taken me this long.

I've been going a week in between blogs because Thursday nights are really the only time that I get an extended time to fully concentrate on writing a l'il sump'n sump'n because Chris is at band rehearsal and Ms. Clara is in bed, so ... it's awesome. I enjoy this little bit of me/alone time. I've got a Woodchuck Granny Smith cider, Tori in the background, I'm set.

So ... yeah ... the rest of our trip revolved around the beach and the ocean. We would wake up, go to the store if need be, and then head to the waves. Clara took several long naps in her stroller by the ocean. The constant sound of the waves crashing did wonders for our baby's sleep. So much, in fact, that we set her sound machine on "Ocean" when we got back to Chicago. It's currently on "Ocean" right now, in fact. So relaxing.

We ate a few more restaurants, did some shopping, had some more peach pie, then it was time to hit the road and come on back to Chicago. It was a long ride back. A lot of traffic jams, but ... what can you do, you know?

I have lots more pictures that can be seen here, if'n you want to take a peek.

I'll write more soon, I swear, but I'm in the mood to dink around on the innerneck this evening and listen to music.

Much love to yins.

At the End of a Long, Lonely Day or Hillbilly Haven and Hilton Head (Part Two)

My sincerest apologies ... life gets busy and I get caught up in the day to day goings on and can't seem to find a moment to reminisce on a beautiful vacation. And, the stinker of that, is that the details start breaking up and falling into a crack in the sidewalks ... ah well. Here we go.

DAY 3 (June 28th):

We went to the cemetery to bury some of Darlene's ashes with her mom and dad, Chris's grandparents. Bud, James's brother, said a few lovely words to remember her and lend support to Chris and Dan.



When I look at that picture, I'm reminded of the trip to West Virginia we took a couple of summers ago and we took a similar picture to remember the time that Darlene was able to see her mother's gravesite:



So much can change so quickly. It's mind-boggling. Love each other, dear readers.

After we finished up at the cemetery, we settled in for some serious porch time. Seriously. Just sitting on the porch. There's really nothing better. We reminisced about Darlene. I read through a church recipe book that Darlene had contributed to and her descriptions of family dinners made us smile because we could recall her voice so easily.

Goodness.

DAY THREE - June 29th:

I think I forgot to mention the flat tire we got a couple of days prior when we were tooling around the country side. We had pulled into a general store so that I could pick up some contact solution and when I came out, I saw Chris getting the jack out and starting to operate on the jeep. We put on the spare but wanted to get our original tire patched up just in case we got into another situation during our near future travels. So, we went "into town" on Monday to get the tire fixed and to get the other one set up with a hubcap and all that happy crappy.

When we got back to the cabin, Chris took me for a wonderful 4 wheel ride:





All this land is in the family, by the way.





I'll try to remember to post some of the videos we took of the ride.

When we got home, more of the family came up to visit and I took a wild buggy ride with Tim Jr.



You haven't lived until you've careened down a dirt road hill at top speed, bugs dying on your face with the dressing of your wind created tears to wash them away. So. Fun.

And, of course, we had tons of porch time. Porch time. It's good for the soul. Heals the brain. Allows a body to truly rest.

I met so many people on this WV trip and Chris hadn't seen many of them for years. Here's a list of everyone we met for posterity: Tim, Tammy, Ashley, Kayla, Meghan and Tim Jr. Sapp, Neil, Bud, Roy the Sheriff, Porch Sittin' Jim, Cindy and Abby.

We had no tv, no internet, no cell phone signal. We loved being off the radar for a spell.

DAY 5 - June 30:

We woke up early and said goodbye to everyone and had a last minute visit from Cindy (Bud's daughter) and her daughter, Abby. We hit the road and headed south. While we were still in West Virginia, we stopped at the New River Gorge (because you really have to if it's on the way).



After a long, long drive we finally arrived at Hilton Head Island and met up with my mom and my grandparents who have a timeshare that they visit every 4th of July week. I haven't been to visit down there since 1999 so I was most overdue. South Carolina, upon our first arrival, was hot. And humid. Like 90 degrees hot and humid. This was at night hot and humid. It was in the 70s the whole time we were in West Virginia so it was a blow to our systems to step out into the lung pressing humidity. It was awesome going from the mountains to the oceans white with foam ... one sleeps so beautifully when there's a tide rolling in and out a couple of times a day.

DAY 6 - July 1:

I'm kind of rushing through everything to get this thing down, so ... there that is.

We started our first morning in South Carolina by getting back to the ol' tv and, more importantly, watching Wimbledon. =) We went to the ocean and the water was as warm as a bathtub, which was wonderful. White sands, clear water, an ocean breeze taking the oppressiveness off the heat. I'd love to move down there. Clara took to the water like a pro. She liked the taste of the salt water and loved the waves coming at her over and over again.



We ate The Smokehouse for dinner. We learned very quickly that to dine on Hilton Head Island in a reasonable amount of time you should plan to be to the restaurant around 5 at the latest. We had quite a long wait for a table and were all set to be seated but our hostess confused us with another family so we had to go back to waiting. Clara has a definite limit on how long she can tolerate a restaurant so by the end of dinner, she was definitely ready to go.

We got back to the resort, watched So You Think You Can Dance and had AMAZING peach pie that my grammy made. Oh, my gosh. So sweet. So cold. Perfect crust. I have the recipe and will do my durndest to repeat the amazingness.

Chris was very excited on this day because he found a whole bunch of Yeungling at the Wal-Mart there. You know what's funny about Hilton Head? Funny in a good, aesthetic way? All the businesses are hidden by trees and set very far back from the main road, so you can't see them.

Alright ... my underlining carpal tunnel syndrome is entreating me to end the entry for this evening ... and Siwitch just puked, so off I go to clean that up. Have a good night, my friends.