last night tim called me with news alex was rear-ended and sent to the hospital. he asked if i could watch their baby while he went to the hospital was surprised when i offered use of my car to him. how else would you get to the hospital, buddy? poor thing was so worried and frazzled i think he forgot the about the small detail of transportation. i told him not to worry and i would stay with the paco taco [baby] as long as they needed me to.
alex is okay. she is in a lot of pain because of her pre-existing herniated disc and now the impact has caused her back to be strained and to feel like it went out. good news is the teenager who wasn’t paying attention and slammed into her is insured and has a rich daddy. they also seem really nice and have offered to help in any way possible. They even visited her at the hospital.
it was the first time it’s just been me and the baby since he was born four months ago. it wasn’t too bad. he’s an easy-going baby. he was sleeping when i arrived and woke up confused about a half hour later. he was threatening to cry until i picked him up and changed him. he was thrilled to be half naked. wee! babies love naked time. i re-dressed him and played with him until he started crying for food. this is the part i don’t like – the crying. it’s so noisy. i made up the formula and sat him down to eat it. when i finally had him to sucking on the bottle his eyes were rolling around in all directions under droopy eyelids. of course the phone rings in the middle of feeding and i suddenly fantasize about a third arm. i can’t hold him and the bottle and get the phone at the same time. if i remove the bottle he wails. i have no way of propping it anywhere and he’s too young to hold it. ugh! so i let him cry and bounce him around on my knee. luckily it’s Tim and he understands the noise. in time the baby chills out, call’s over and i can feed him again. the rest of the night was changing him, playtime and taking pictures. the little guy loves his picture taken! he should – alex and tim are both photography fiends. it makes sense.
my thoughts after the evening.
while he was crying and while i was fantasizing about a third arm i thought about single mothers and fathers. how do they do it? what a nightmare. i can’t imagine dealing with a baby alone. then i thought about community and what a dream having a close-knit group of people you could trust helping you and lived very close to you. it makes sense why people who decide to reproduce tend to stay close to home. of course, it would be best to have people of similar ideals and attitudes – like a group of friends. rather than only having your family. as much as it’s great to have family around i don’t know if i’d really want most of my extended family around that often. immediate family, definitely. i’ve had a few conversations with people about how it would be ideal to have a communal-type environment for that kind of thing. i know, very hippy of me to say this but it makes sense. is it realistic in our times and society? not really. we’re too independent for communal living. there are groups who succeed at it. quite a few in portland actually. speaking for myself i don’t know if i could really do it either. i love being available to help and share resources but i love my independence. it would be a big thing to commit to and i don’t do well with big commitments. or people dependent on me and sacrificing all those things you have to sacrifice when you have kids. it totally freaks me out. which is reason #1 i have a really hard time imagining myself with a kid.
so i’ll leave it to alex and tim and i’m happy being tia kelly for now. i do really love their son and i can't wait to watch him grow up.
(i'm sure those close to me, if you're reading this, are shaking your heads in surprise. me, goo'ing on about a baby. no, the world's not coming to an end)
*update: alex is okay but on disability because the injury to her back aggravated a pre-existing herniated disc and after x-rays the doctor informed her she also has a fracture in one of her bones in her neck. poor thing. :(
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Congratulations Leanne!
Video of Leanne's portland crew watching her win Project Runway!
(i'm in there too)
...
the bins: what's the big deal?
this past weekend i finally went out to the infamous “bins” south of portland. my assumptions were correct about the place being piles of junk that bring the packrats of the world to tears of joy. i attempted to rummage through a pile of clothes but had to stop because i was starting to feel sick. the clothes smelled stale and unwashed; and there was a faint odor of poop that i couldn’t be sure was coming from the clothing or someone next to me. i didn't want to catch a creepy disease and there was nowhere to wash my hands. i decided to get away and find the books. books are relatively safe, right? for the most part. the only thing that was disgusting was an old dress-thing that reeked of mothballs someone left on a pile of books. maybe someone found it and decided against the baby blue crinoline on their way to the cashier.
as i was looking through the books, i was also people watching. there were some people smart enough to wear rubber gloves in their search for junk. gloves would be a good idea because i could almost visualize the disgusting microorganisms and bacteria swarming on my own hands from touching just a couple things. there were a few pinched-faced women with noisy kids. a woman walked into me that looked like she had been doing meth for the past five years. yes, i know. classy. there were couples and families with grocery carts full of things. almost every single cart had some kind of stuffed animal in it. there was a couple women excited about a stuffed dog puppet thing and taking turns doing their best “dog” voice while flapping its little mouth.
i found a couple books, one of them an old psychology textbook from the 1950s and the other, a wine book from 2007, which is cool because it makes it easier to choose wines. usually i go in to buy wine and not only am i indecisive but my eyes start glazing over. finally, i pick a bottle i am familiar with or get one that sounds good and has a good price. “sounds good” is something in the label that includes something about a cherry flavor. i’m a sucker for cherries. luckily, the wine is usually good but i don’t like pressing my luck.
so that was my experience at the bins. i don’t know why people make such a big deal of it. i found it disgusting. the clothes – forget it. i don’t care if it’s charged by the pound. i wouldn’t wear anything in those disgusting piles. the furniture all looked like they were missing parts and most of them were about to fall apart. the books were okay. there were some interesting titles in there and lots of christian god and jesus-related books. obviously there's not a big demand if that many of them end up in the bins. there was even a jahova’s witness book. maybe i should have picked that up and used it as a halloween costume prop. the “bins” is an outlet store for goodwill, so it makes sense that it’s piles of the rejected things not purchased in the stores. honestly i’ll pass. if i want thrift things i’d rather go to the stores. at least it’s organized.
as i was looking through the books, i was also people watching. there were some people smart enough to wear rubber gloves in their search for junk. gloves would be a good idea because i could almost visualize the disgusting microorganisms and bacteria swarming on my own hands from touching just a couple things. there were a few pinched-faced women with noisy kids. a woman walked into me that looked like she had been doing meth for the past five years. yes, i know. classy. there were couples and families with grocery carts full of things. almost every single cart had some kind of stuffed animal in it. there was a couple women excited about a stuffed dog puppet thing and taking turns doing their best “dog” voice while flapping its little mouth.
i found a couple books, one of them an old psychology textbook from the 1950s and the other, a wine book from 2007, which is cool because it makes it easier to choose wines. usually i go in to buy wine and not only am i indecisive but my eyes start glazing over. finally, i pick a bottle i am familiar with or get one that sounds good and has a good price. “sounds good” is something in the label that includes something about a cherry flavor. i’m a sucker for cherries. luckily, the wine is usually good but i don’t like pressing my luck.
so that was my experience at the bins. i don’t know why people make such a big deal of it. i found it disgusting. the clothes – forget it. i don’t care if it’s charged by the pound. i wouldn’t wear anything in those disgusting piles. the furniture all looked like they were missing parts and most of them were about to fall apart. the books were okay. there were some interesting titles in there and lots of christian god and jesus-related books. obviously there's not a big demand if that many of them end up in the bins. there was even a jahova’s witness book. maybe i should have picked that up and used it as a halloween costume prop. the “bins” is an outlet store for goodwill, so it makes sense that it’s piles of the rejected things not purchased in the stores. honestly i’ll pass. if i want thrift things i’d rather go to the stores. at least it’s organized.
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