Hopeless at Petsmart

I carried Milo and my canvas bag into Petsmart. I bought a box of dog treats and a collar for the cat. The lady double bagged the two items while I was signing, and I said, "I brought a bag." She took the double bagged box, lifted it up to put it into the canvas bag. I said "I brought a bag so I wouldn't use the plastic." feeling helpless. She shrugs, says, "alright, if you want"lifts the stuff out of the bag, I set Milo on the floor and put it into my bag and she bends over crumples the two bags up and throws them in the trash. Then she starts ringing up the stuff for the next customer, visibly annoyed with me.

*sigh*. I know that I'm not alone in my craziness about bags, although my family thinks that I am ridiculous and unreasonable, since an entire city has banned them. But seriously folks. My intentions were smashed between ignorance and spite, and in the end, I took the bags out of the trash and brought them home, because I couldn't bear to talk with her about it (she wasn't about to talk with me about it, I mean). blech.

It's pretty clear to me that in most of the US, offering a bag is a sign of kindness, sincerity and helpfulness. And I have witnessed the "not offering" or "withholding" of bags be interpreted as a direct affront and insult to the person.

This I think is the bigger issue, that rejection of the person's normal way of dealing with people, especially since they think it's a positive thing they're doing. It complicates an interaction to have a person not follow the "rules" of the bagging. That is what the people in San Fran have overcome, the expectation that a bag is expected.

It's just so much damn plastic everywhere. Half of our car is plastic. Most of everyone's carpets, almost all toys, all electronics, most of our clothes... its all oil-drenched, making it, packaging it, shipping it, carrying it to the car (more oil), then throwing it away (in a different plastic bag!). Then carting it off to our landfills.

I wish that some massive shift would happen in our lives where buying wasn't almost everything that Americans did. What would this place be if we weren't constantly churning out more things to consume and then throw away?

Political process

Had a great experience tonight at our local Caucus. I am a relatively literate person (and still amazingly clueless about many things) yet I had no idea what you actually did at a caucus. It was a ruckus event at our local place, wow, so many many people and such a useful way to see that you are a person living with other persons, doing something together. I saw at least ten neighbors, and Milo attended his first political event. We spent an hour looking for Cabot in our neighborhood prior to me going and that was stressful. He was having a blast in the park, with no collar on of course--because he shakes and wakes the baby up from his precious little sleep. (uh oh, that again)
George and I are no longer really adults, we're more like badly trained warriors trying to survive another night. We don't even really get to talk to each other any more, he or I head go to bed by 8:30 each in a separate room, and try and get as much sleep before all hell breaks loose and our baby brings us to our knees begging him to just sleep. For those of you who have children who sleep/slept all night long, I think we are having a different experience of parenting. I'm being a fool and am up at ten to ten. I will pay big for this judgement call. I will have even less shut-eye.

We need a babysitter, anyone got one who they love with a flexible schedule in NWDenver? I did have three hours on wed. where both boys were being watched. That didn't work out, so now I'm back on craigslist, scouring the posts, looking for someone to help.

Putting on my riot gear and going to bed. I wish it was already tomorrow morning.

well, it's february

What can I say here? I previously vowed to not blather on about my sleep woes with our youngest darling son. I guess I'll stick to that, because nothing I have to say warrants reading or repeating. I will say that I am an emotionally unstable person in the night hours, when I am not sleeping.

I think Milo has a cold. he's got boogers, and he's not sleeping. Ha, if that were the reason, how lucky would we be?That would mean after said cold is gone, that we could look forward to some shut eye. Ha. Monday is our day without scheduled plans, although I have been trying to see my friend Gina's baby for the last four mondays, with no success. And here is another one, snowy and glum, that I won't see her.

I made scones this morning to try and help me feel better, but that didn't work. I gave up on doing school work, and that hasn't helped either. Rowan has been a champ, doing the dishes and working with legos and I've been carrying Milo in the Ergo for about four hours, and it's only 2 pm. He is sleeping, but only when I'm standing, so that's getting a bit tiring. He's got a stuffy nose that fills up every time I lay him down. So no rest for the wicked like I always say.

My friend Megan's dog got mauled by a dog last week, horrifying for me even though I wasn't there. I think there are many kinds of sickness in our crazy world, but denial about aggressive dogs is a very dangerous kind. We know from experience, and I wish that there were some better ways to learn than by encountering that kind of violence. The owner doesn't feel she's responsible and you know, that's really messed up.(To put it in a family friendly sort of way.)

I think February is my least favorite month. It is the month that dismisses all justifications about living small and making do with what we've got. It makes me a person I don't like to be around, and bothers me by being flanked by at least one more solid month of winter. It just showed up and already I'm having issues with it, and this year it's a whole day longer than usual.

We were so ambitious this year, thinking that we could ski with the two boys. What a joke. The effort and time it takes to get up there and the effort and time it takes to get ready and the effort and time to get in 45 measly minutes of skiing before we have to sit tortured in the car by our two year old and baby in traffic is just heart breaking. I think I've just given up.

Not to mention the damn school work I've got. *sigh* Okay, the scones are helping a little.

You know I am in library school, so I must share things like this. (As G says, "You are such a geek!"
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_eccentric_reads_entire_book

Anyone need help finding information? You wouldn't believe all the new tools I have to find what you're looking for. Just look what getting edjimacated'll do fer ya.

Pizza night

Pizza night around here! This week we are getting the groove and I have to say that all things we have scheduled are valuable! I've actually got babysitting help with Milo, and Rowan has two fun days at preschool and at a Parents Day Out program in the hood.

We even somehow managed to gather our book club and all the kiddos this week and went to Ali Baba for falafel and hummus. Yum.

Now all I have to do is pretend like I can write a big fat paper and I think I'll be fine this quarter at school.

very scheduled

FINALLY, Milo fell asleep and I have about ten minutes before I wake Rowan up (i know it's a crime) so that we won't be battling him at 10 pm tonight. Sort of a mini nap. We woke delerious today, after a miserable interlude in the middle of the night with Milo screaming as a soundtrack. Blech. And then we were up, our brand new babysitter coming for the first time so that I could be in Rowan's preschool without imposing on all of our friends and neighbors to watch Milo.
And then we went and paid the bill at DU, which I tried to do before class on Tuesday but to my chagrin the checkbook was in another bag. Argh. So there I tromp in with Milo in the carrier and Rowan dawdling along to do that, and return some of the books I borrowed from the library. I confess, I am one of those people who checks out all the titles on the subject at one time. I have to see what they all look like, but then I was good, and returned some. The woman sitting next to me in class said that I'm the reason some libraries limit the amount of books you can borrow from a single area! I felt guilty, but did it anyway... but then I returned them quickly.

Then off we were to the farm to pick up milk... and I saw the coolest thing... modern butter churning. How? you ask. A blender, I say. Yes, real butter being made from real cream with no sweat involved... and now I have real buttermilk!!! the leftovers from that process.

So I think i'll make some buttermilk pancakes tomorrow morning or muffins or something tasty. Milo started sitting on Wednesday. He's pretty good for just starting, even moving his head around to watch and not toppling over. He also got mobile, must have had some kind of a growth jump because now he spins around and pushes himself backwards and is trying to get up on hands and knees. I can see the future, and it looks very scary folks.

Rowan is now role playing for extended periods of time too, directing us to stay in our roles and refusing to answer us if we don't call him his "name". We met so many kids this week, and he's a little surly now and then, but overall amazingly okay with it. I have now rounded up a cadre of folks to help me study, tho no studying has really happened yet! I'm hoping that next week will be good for that. He ripped the cover off of George's Climbing magazine a couple of nights ago, and we were shocked. G incredulously asked why he did it, and DR opened up the bifolded picture of an ice climbing scene and said, "I want to see this when I'm sleeping."

He has a poster of Major League soccer hilights and one from the National Geographic that he got in his stocking taped near his bed, so why not ice climbing too. I, as mother, shake in my boots at what this child will be doing when he has his choice.

School is going to be very interesting this semester. I am really interested in many things library of course, being in library school. But what I am most interested in is who uses the library and who doesn't. I am not sure that library school is going to answer that, but maybe i'll get a good idea over time. well... maybe it's not what i'm MOST interested in, but I would like to know more about what brings people to the library and how they decide to go there. I found a book in the stacks called Library as Place, and will prob read it in my abundant free time. ha.

We have now become those people who are very scheduled. It happened innocently enough with my need for time, me being in school, and george working and making time for fun things, and me looking for the same for the boys. So pretty much five of five weekdays (and nights) we have something scheduled, partially because my classes are on two days. *sigh*

We always have pizza night on Fridays though, and can count on that. And hopefully our skiing will be up and going starting this weekend.

Happy NEW YEARS!!!

My mom said it doesn't show how/where to do comments, so I tried it out. You just click on the "0 comments" and it opens a little window for you to write in. Also, apparently the slideshow doesn't open bigger for everyone...? try clicking on it and it should go to picasa and open it larger. let me know if it doesn't.

Anyone out there doing the Inner Christmas emails? I have really enjoyed them, getting some direction and focus when thinking about the last year, and the coming year. It's reflective and spiritual, but not pedantic. check it out for next year, I will definitely do it again. Plus she sends an email a day for 12 days, I like that too.

I think that may be one of my favorite things about the holiday time, getting great mail in the mailbox. What a treat to open it up and get fun pictures and letters. Thank you to all of you who did that. I promise, ours is in the works. i've got the pieces, it just needs to go together.