Monthly Archives: January 2008

young love? I’ll pass.

Posted on January 24, 2008 | 8 Comments

Kid explained a recent problem at preschool with her good buddy, Jill (age 4).*

Jill is Sam’s girlfriend now and I don’t like it.

What does that mean, to be a girlfriend?

young-love-print-c10054982.jpgWell, Sam falled in love with Jill and Jill falled in love with him. And now she’s his girlfriend.

And what does that mean?

It means you have to sit together all day long. And not play with anyone else. All day.

Oh.

Too bad for them.

[*not their real names.]

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Posted in growth, kid

Learn-A-Word Wednesday: kvetch \KVECH\

Posted on January 23, 2008 | 2 Comments

adjective:

1. To complain habitually.
2. A complaint.
3. A habitual complainer.

They begin to look like malcontents who kvetch about the weather so much that they don’t notice the sun coming out.
– David Shenk, “Slamming Gates”, The New Republic, January 26, 1998

Kvetch comes from Yiddish kvetshn, “to squeeze, to complain,” from Middle High German quetzen, quetschen, “to squeeze.”

Do I need to tell you what this word means? The Seattle area is not really known for its bagels, blintzes or matzah balls, but kvetching? Oy!

Originally, the kvetching in our household flowed one way: out of me!

I’m not the complaint department! said DH more than a few times. If only that goy knew this word, he could have said, I’m not the kvetch department!

Now, Kid speaks. Add her to the kvetching. Why CAN’T my room be a Cinderella room now? This dress is SCRATCHY! The DOG ate my applesauce! Yes, I’ve proudly passed on another winning trait.

Also, notice the NOUN FORM above (#3)! I might have kvetched enough to qualify as BEING a kvetch!

But you kvetch, too, right?

No? Only me?

Oy! I feel a kvetch coming on….

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Posted in growth, marriage, words

county budget cuts hit home

Posted on January 22, 2008 | 6 Comments

Well, THAT didn’t take long.

Our lovely Kitsap county library system cut back on everything at the beginning of this year. Hours are shorter, and get this, they now charge late fees if you don’t return a book by some arbitrary date spewed out by, of all things, a computer. (2001 was RIGHT! Uh, computers, taking over, right here.)

I think they call it a “due date.” Whatever.

One thing I could honestly say I liked about this island, besides the lack of smog, signal lights and ax murderers, was that I could pretty much return a book any dang time I wanted. So long as it was not too late, give or take eight months. Weeks late, they’d let you renew (or do it for you) while you hunt for that Hello Kitty book that disappeared after the road trip two months earlier.

Be sure to check behind the couch, they’d offer helpfully.

Now, we got a regular Stalin behind the counter. They look all nice and friendly, but don’t be fooled.

Just a few weeks into the new Regime, and I owe them the Big Coin.

A quarter, to be exact.

Oh, sure, they email you about upcoming due dates as part of their new computer system (hey, wait a minute, we paid for this Regime??).

But really, who reads emails anymore? It’s not like they send any coupon codes for Old Navy with them.

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Posted in Bainbridge Island, WA, growth, venting

thrill-seeking in midlife

Posted on January 20, 2008 | 9 Comments

wheelies-1.jpgI was never one of those people who HAD to try skydiving. The thought even now makes me want to barf. I did have some thrills backpacking, kayaking, scuba diving and even helicoptering into the wilderness.

Being home all the time on a little island with a 4 year old person and a 6 year old dog, I get fewer thrills. But here are a few that come to mind and make me say, “woo hoo!”

1. Swallowed two or more horse pill-sized vitamins at once without gagging;
2. Took out my contact lenses without washing my hands first;
3. Licked the peanut butter off the knife;
4. Flipped the fish sticks over with my bare naked fingers midway through the ten minutes;
5. Leaned in reeeeaaal close to the Kid when she is bent over and could easily pop up at any moment, breaking my nose with her skull (this also applies to large dogs, too, by the way).

Yeah, the SAHM’s adrenaline soars.

Are you living on the wild side, too? Gettin’ any cheap thrills?

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Posted in aging, growth, life is good, me-me-me, weirdo

my annual mamm-o-smush-o-rama

Posted on January 18, 2008 | 2 Comments

mammogram.jpg

Once you’ve earned a certain number of grey hairs, gained a certain amount of wisdom from years of stupid experiences, then and only then, do you have the annual joy of……giant plates flattening your boobs, with an audience (who has no sense of humor but a big wad of chewing gum). Okay, it’s possible you only need to turn 40 and be female.

And on the 1-year anniversary of my first ever colonoscopy. This may just become my annual torture-myself-in-the-name-of-health day.

Ha-HA! But that’s where I’ve got them, because the boobs, the girls, the sisters, they’re already flattening themselves on their own.

Either way, I don’t really mind the slight discomfort. See, when cancer shows up in your family where it has no business being, you volunteer for all the smushing, radiating, probing, feeling, poking, and testing you can get.

What about here? Did you get this spot?

They are TURNING ME DOWN for more tests. I feel relief getting a test. I’m nothing if not an excellent test-taker.

GIMME MORE, GIMME MORE!

karate.gif

Haiiiiii-YAAAA! Take that, you free radicals!

I shall now attempt to re-fluff the girls while I take my vitamin D with mypomegranate juice.

And, you women, go forth and be smushed!

Note: Please do it officially; your *ahem* friend’s attempts don’t really count….

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Posted in aging, health, me-me-me