Monday, June 21, 2010

Summertime

Last weekend I went to the water park. It was a lot of fun. My first time in a wave pool, which I thought would be lame for me but exciting for my son. 'This looks about our speed,' I said to Ian. It ended up being a lot of fun for both of us. Those waves are serious. They are just like ocean waves, with their take-down power.

Then I bought a new bike., a 1-speed, beach cruiser. So,I got a child's seat for it, as well. B/c there is no way these guys let me just leave the house without them and go for a bike ride. Let's be serious. I can barely make it to work on time, somedays. I bring the bike home and slave away in the garage--in the moist, humid, sticky Savannah, Georgia garage heat. I finally got everything togethor and sturdy after about an hour. At that time the 3-year-old was enjoying a Disney movie in the AC. His curiosity at what I was doing in the garage was abated by the heat. So, I tell my niece to bring out my 4 month old. He is in the 90th percentile for his weight, let me mention, before you get too judgemental about this next part.

So, there we are. Me and my niece. I have her helping me get my son into this seat. I am fixing the straps and getting ready to go for a ride. She begins to get concerned about the amount of support my son requires to sit in the seat. 'Don't worry, I got him.' I tell her. She expresses her concern with a, 'Auntie, you're going to get him KILLED!'. I chuckle b/c I realize in her mind she thinks I am gonna pedal around the block with my son flopping hazardously around in the seat, potentially falling out of it. I never intend to do this, of course, I am just seeing if he will fit securely in the seat. But I decide to kid her a little bit by replying, 'No, I'm not, I'm just gonna pedal and hold onto him like this. He'll be alright.' She begins walking towards the door, no longer wanting to take part in fitting my son to the seat. 'What size is he supposed to be to ride in this, anyway?' she asks casually. I reply, '1 year, but he is almost like a 6-month old with his weight.' 'I WON'T LET YOU GO', she lets me know in a stern I'm-joking-but-I'm-not-joking tone as she hits the button to lower the garage door. I realize her casual walk was actually a calculated slink towards this button. I sigh, 'It's too hot, open the garage door.' She tells me no, that she won't let me take him out that she'll keep the door closed. I guess the game is over now so I show her how the straps wouldn't fit him anyway & that I wasn't gonna take him out. 'But bring me Ian!,' I say, 'b/c after all that work I am taking one of my kids out in this seat!'

That niece is so smart, I admire the way she stood up to me to protect my son. I wasn't seriously going to ride around with him in the seat the way he was, I was only kidding her.

So, anyway, the 3-year-old was a perfect fit and we had a really nice bike ride!

Caffeine Check

Below is my coffee log. or CLOG. Basically just about how much caffeine I consume on a daily basis.

I start out with

For the drive to work I have
1-2 red bulls, just to get it in gear
or a regular-sized thermos of coffee

I drink a can of diet mountain dew around 9 am

There is no way I'm making it through the afternoon without another red bull.

Poems I Like

A collection of a few of my faves...

Requiem for a Pay Phone

All

That

Autumn,

I walked from
The apartment (shared
With my sisters) to that pay phone
On Third Avenue, next to a sleazy gas station
And down the block from the International House of Pancakes. I was working the night

Shift at a pizza joint and you were away at college. You dated a series of inconsequential
boys. Well, each boy meant little on his

Own, but their cumulative effect devastated my brain and balls. I wanted you to stop
kissing relative strangers, so I called at midnight as often as I could afford to. If I talked
to you that late, I knew

(Or hoped) you couldn’t rush into anybody’s bed. But, damn, I still recall the misery ofhearing the ring, ring, ring, ring

Of your unanswered phone. These days, I’d text you to find you, but where’s thedelicious pain
In that?

God, I miss standing in the mosquito dark

At this or that pay phone. I wish

That I could find one

And call back

All that

I

Loved.

_______________________

CELEBRATION
by Mari Evans

I will bring you a whole person
and you will bring me a whole person
and we will have us twice as much
of love and everything

I be bringing a whole heart
and while it do have nicks and
dents and scars,
that only make me lay it down
more careful-like
An’ you be bringing a whole heart
a little chipped and rusty an’
sometime skip a beat but
still an’ all you bringing polish too
and look like you intend
to make it shine

And we be bringing, each of us
the music of our selves to wrap
the other in

Forgiving clarities
soft as a choir’s last
lingering note our
personal blend

I will bring you someone whole
and you will bring me someone whole
and we be twice as strong
and we be twice as sure
and we will have us twice as much
of love
and everything

_____________________________
Unknown

if you were to come here,
back to my door
pinioning me with smooth globes of shoulders
-"drinking" you'd say,- to me
your whiskey breath at my collarbone...
I mean, if you were to come here
if you could come here, I mean

if the sun is really a whistling
hole into heaven and you came here...

Things I throw away everyday harsh and growling on a
broken tooth
my hair shook free from any woman fancy my laundry
on
my back
my boy is beautiful like an indigo bunting, no,
wider,
like the sky it crosses briefly, tree visiting
his wet wings unfurl lash by lash
his curled secret body unfolds
the stomach marble white and hard, the tender
tension of the arms, age trying to get
at his eyes, creep along his hands
but I would protect
even as I snarl and shake
my rough hair my muscle strata rife with white nerve
tubes
and pounding veins
seeing my shortfall in his eyes
or fearing this
I wade out in rough water, under heavy sky
crying come with me follow me

The fall through water
silver
diamond breaking apart
the barracuda fall and slide
against and away
the secret mouths of polyps
ride their cosmos of reef as I
sink with you
around you
breaking apart
silver

the fish have their sixth sense
on the surface of their skin
to move as one, to come as close as one inch from
the
hand outstretched

the sky today is heavy chromium
and tight trees
you are tired and riding to work and
then to your second job
leaving a house in draped chaos
the flags and scarfs of poverty

Ikeep this as my diary, "The sky
today..."

if you were to come here,
back to my door
pinioning me with smooth globes of shoulders
-"drinking" you'd say,- to me
your whiskey breath at my collarbone...
I mean, if you were to come here
if you could come here, I mean

if the sun is really a whistling
hole into heaven and you came here...

Thursday, June 3, 2010

New Hobbies

I have taken up scrap booking. Also, took a little trip over Memorial Day Weekend to see my niece graduate high school, which is why I havne't blogged in awhile.

Ian is doing the cutest thing lately. He is really into Tom and Jerry cartoons. He watches them and just got so upset over Tom locking Jerry up in the cold. Ian was going, 'Oh, nooo. Oh, noooo.' He was fidgeting and walking back and forth on the furniture. We had to tell him it was alright and that Jerry was going to show 'em. He finally calmed down when he saw Jerry was alright. But my kid has a heart of gold, he was really distraught over Jerry being locked outside.

The youngest one is full of grins. He is also just so chubby and cute. I love babies. It seems like every time I hold him he falls asleep. Then I end up falling asleep, too.