Little Bathing Beauty

Last night I gave the Peanut and Chubber a bath. Yes, I know, what a surprise: a mom bathing her preschool children. Well, ya kind of have to, its in the job description, and--after about 4 days or so they really start to smell.

So, upon pulling peanut out of the tub she says:

"Mommy! (looking at her naked arm and little tummy) I have DUCK BUMPS!"

Translation: Goose bumps.

I just thought that was the cutest little thing.

Jury Duty

I wound up being called for jury duty, and actually had to show up at the courthouse this morning.

See, this is how it works: One day you check your mail and contained within its junk mail, and bill confines is this innocuous little piece of paper informing you of your summons to appear for jury duty. No biggie, just sign the page, return it, and let them know you'll show up (unless, of course you have a valid reason to defer).

This morning, I got to sleep in until a whopping 6:20am! Whoo-hoo! The reason being, I had to report for jury duty by 8:00am. I did not have to wrangle my sweet little children (like the usual 7am morning madness), as dear sweet B.J. was home to watch them (my babysitter is sick, but that's another story unto itself!). So, it meant I didn't need to leave the house until about 7:40am to make it to the courthouse on time.

Upon arrival to the 'Jury Duty Reporting' entrance, I walked into what appeared to be the bowels of the courthouse. A downward sloping sidewalk led me to a door into an institutional white hallway complete with post-9-1-1 security screening. After being screened, I was admitted to yet another bland and cheerless room where I filled out two forms: one to give my name, juror number, and whether or not my employer would pay me for my time away from work to serve on the jury; the other form was a general survey of who I was--my age, marital status, educational background, and hobbies. With those two forms filled out, I waited in a short line to be counted 'present' and be accounted for, to fulfil my charged duty.

What followed was approximately two hours of sitting in a rather uncomfortable chair alongside the perimeter of the dour, fluorescent-lighted space. Thankfully I had my copy of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. While I was fully diverted by my choice in reading material, the only excitement I was to have while in the Jury selection room was a $1.50 discount coupon to be used at the courthouse espresso bar (which got me a skinny coconut latte-yum!), and listening to Pam, the juror coordinator (I don't know her actual title, but she was the one who made the announcements and herded us around the bowels of the courthouse like a well work-worn Australian Shepherd moves his flock with so little effort). Pam was great. She was as entertaining as watching BBC America, that droll, dry sarcasm and dark humor that I so appreciate.

Toward the end of the 2 hour period I, along with the others, became restless. We wanted to know if we would see 'action' or, if not, could we please just get a move on and get out to live our lives!? Finally, the the announcement came: There would be no jury trials today. We had fulfilled our civic obligation of 'jury duty' for the interim next two years--so, should we receive a summons, we would be able to check the handy little box that states 'ineligible: jury duty in the last 2 years'.

So, while I wasn't exactly thrilled to go, I was able to get out early, having done my 'job' and was able to go and enjoy the remainder of the day with my husband and children.

To celebrate, we made our very first pilgrimage to Chuck-E-Cheese. It was very fun, and the kids had a blast, and, surprisingly enough, they actually make a pretty good pizza.

The great American Justice system and Chuck-E-Cheese. What more can I ask for?

...the blind will see...the lame will walk

Life has a funny way of coming at you--especially when you least expect it. One of the great promises in life is that 'you'll never be given more than you can handle.' I love this promise, because when I'm gasping for air, and the life-ring is too far to reach and the waves are crashing over my head, threatening to pull me under for good, something comes along and buoys me up just long enough to grab that ring, and I make it to safety.



Autism is often that sea that I find myself sputtering in and desperately trying to tread water in order to stay afloat. Peanut has a form of Autism, PDD-NOS (there is debate as to whether or not PDD-NOS is under the 'Autism umbrella' or if Autism is under the umbrealla of PDD-NOS...but, for what is is worth, if you've got either label you're seeing and experiencing the world in a different way.). And, one of the characteristics of PDD that she has is speech and language development delay (communication disorder). She wants to talk to us, tell us things, but the way she can communicate is not always the conventional way that we can and do communicate--leaving both she and us frustrated and incommunicado.



I, just this very hour, read a wonderful article about a 13 year old girl with Autism who was unable to speak (she has apraxia--as in NO language at all) whom, for the first time in her life, has found a way to communicate with her family, and , consequently, the world. Before, the family and 'specialists' thought her to be possibly low functioning cognitively and unable to communicate--other than in non-standard ways (screaming, hittng herself, banging on furniture). She found a way to talk. To commuicate; and, she does so very effectively.



You can read all about her miraculous story of hope here.



Please read it, and file it away in your memory for the next time you're out in public and you see a person having a 'melt-down' or a 'fit' --self-injurous behaviors, screaming, yelling, and the like. Maybe, like the little girl in the article, they just haven't found a way that we understand to communicate with us.



God works in mysterious ways. This article was one of those ways He worked for me: I've grabbed hold of the life-ring, and am being pulled into safety.

Plagiarism....and stuff

So, if the MLA or APA folks come around, just 'X' out this window...because I stole it! It is from an email forward (anonymous), and is too funny not to share. That, and I got lousy news at work today: My partner is being transferred to another location--executive decision by the top brass. I'm completely and totally bummed. We both were in tears. So, with that in mind I'll cheer myself (and maybe you, too!) up.

For your consideration:

If you are 30 or older (or close to it) you will think this is
hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what
with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill
BOTH ways

yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no
way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids
about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that...
I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around
and notice the youth of today.

So here it goes . . . . .

When I was a kid we didn't have The Internet . If we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the library and look it up
ourselves, in the card catalogue!! There was no email!! We had to
actually write somebody a letter .with a pen! Then you had to walk
all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would
take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had
to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or
you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd
usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the
phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone
rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom,
your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you
just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances,
mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games
like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square!
You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no
multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you
could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and
faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theatre there no such thing as stadium
seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some
old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you
were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15
channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You
had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!
You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off
your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was
no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday
Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying! ?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for
cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we
had to use the stove ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had
to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove
forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it
too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes
back in 1980!

Regards,

The over 30 Crowd

My Heart On My Sleeve

This is a photo of my parents at our wedding.

The last photo that was taken of my mom and I before she 'got sick'.

Valentine's day is for my mom. I miss her every day, but especially today, of all days.

In loving memory.

Barbara Lee

October 2, 1940 - February 14, 2002

Some day I'll find the courage and energy to post the story of my mom. For now, this is what I've got.

I miss you, mom.

...haven't dropped off the face of the planet (yet!)

Its been a long time since I've posted. A lot has been going on. I don't even know where to start. I guess, I can briefly mention that Peanut had a homicidal moment (not said tongue-in-cheek), and, understandably, I had a near nevous breakdown as a result of it. Safe to say, life is slightly closer to 1 standard deviation away from the mean (i.e. 'normal'), thanks to an emergency visit to her psychiatrist.

It is fast approaching the 6th anniversary of my mom's death, so I'm a bit melancholy, and have been mentally working on a post for the past month--though, haven't committed it to paper-yet.


My goal this week is to get some of my thoughts sorted out and on 'paper' out into the blogosphere for your consideration.

As for now, we're surviving. Day to day.

Fulfilling my Civic Duty (maybe?)

Dun, dun, dun....I've been called for....JURY DUTY!

Ahh!

I have been summoned for jury duty exactly three times in my lifetime. To date I have served on exactly 0 trials. The first time that weighty little letter showed up I was about 22 years old, and, while nervous as 'all-get-out' after dialing the phone-in line, I was relieved of my duty: the trial had been cancelled.

The second time I was summoned was during my year-long leave of absence (read: when I was a S.A.H.M. to my Peanut and Chubbers). Due to the sensitive nature of my living situation (read: heavily lactating-mommy moo-cow who was nursing a 20lb. Chublet every 3 hours), I was able to decline to fulfil my Civic Duty.

It is always said that the "third time is the charm", and with that in mind, this past October, I received my third offical summons to appear as a juror in service of our magnificent American justice system. Unfortunately, at work, I was heavily inundated with offical State business (yet another fun audit or the like...honestly, I can't remember what legal-ish situation was going on, but it was something high-stakes (apparently) or else I wouldn't have been able to defer...) so I was able to postpone my summons until a later time.

Being the industrious little worker-bee that I am, I looked at my handy-dandy calendar and marked which bank holidays occurred in which months, and I zeroed in on February as my choice of month to commit myself to my Duty. Why February, you ask? Well, it is the month with the fewest bank holidays/inservices/out of the office days, of course. And, if I'm going to get stuck doing something I don't particularly want to do, I might as well do it and have a day out of the office, in a month where there are few days away, while I do it. Makes sense, right? Yeah, I thought so too.

So, here in my post box this afternoon what was I to find? I found the Safeway weekly mail insert (yuck--who cares, the poor slaughtered trees and environmental waste is what always pops into my brain), a Discover card advert (who cares? Aren't Americans, as a rule, entirely too far in debt? Isn't the Fed, as we speak, working on contriving a way to keep us out of a recession due to our overzealous spending habits and the poor investment choices of people with NO CREDIT have made? Isn't coroporate America crying 'poor, poor, poor, me...save me! while our Leader has (thank GOD) resolutely refused to dole out yet another form or corporate welfare...aherm...climbing down off the soap-box now). And, tucked neatly between the glorious waste of paper in my box, you guessed it, my Jury summons.

Should prove to be interesting, at the least. I wonder if I will wind up not being needed, as before. Or, will I get stuck on some sort of O.J.-esque media circus where I'll be sequestered (detained, Northern Korean prisoner-of-war style) in a swanky hotel, away from all outside influences and my precious family?

Who knows.

I call into the automated response system on February 24th to see if I will be needed on the 25th.

Wish me luck.