Weird Bird in Love

Tilt, remember that ride-on rocket car that Alex had, back when Zag was spending Tuesdays with Alex? Well, they had one at the Davis Square Goodwill today. It’s in our living room right now. If you weren’t out of town, this object would not have come home with us. But I was unwilling to face singlehandedly the scale of the tantrum that would have ensued if I had tried not to buy it. It can get lost in the move, if necessary. I will say for it that at least the perky voices that say “All systems go!”, etc., are not all that loud…  (more…)

Seems like a while since I’ve done a thrifting report. (I haven’t, for example, mentioned finding two NWT suits that fit me, for $40 and $28 respectively, plus a black linen Flax jacket – really sort of a frock coat – that I adore, at a consignment shop near where I was staying last week.) I’m actually a little tired of shopping at the moment, believe it or not, but Zag and I went to the Davis Square Goodwill this afternoon because Tilt says the kid needs more T-shirts. (more…)

So I’ve been working on The Uniform. My soon-to-be-boss, the rector of the parish where I’ll be working, seems to wear a clergy shirt, dark slacks and jacket to work every day, so I’m feeling like I ought to be ready to look professional and put-together on a more-or-less daily basis, too. (more…)

I was out virtuously walking the dog Monday night, and as a little reward from the universe, I found a beautiful and sturdily-built old dresser out for salvage/trash, beside the building across the street from me. We hauled it indoors and set it up in the bedroom. It needs new knobs, but that’s a trivial repair. Maybe someday we’ll even refinish it – it’s lovely wood, under some dings and scratches. I’d been grousing about our small, particle-board dressers for months…  This one fits all my clothes, and my son can’t reach the top of it. (Yet.)

Zag has crossed some kind of new cognitive threshold. We’ve been noticing him saying things that startle us with their complexity or thoughtfulness… I think I’ve already forgotten about half a dozen that I meant to remember. But for example, this morning, after stating that he wanted his lunch quesadilla to be plain,  he observed without prompting, “Plain and airplane are both same word!” (more…)

It was nice, in its way. I didn’t feel like I could make any space for it – Zag was still so sick, I had school, CPE was weighing on my mind, etc. But people emailed me and called me and sent me loving little gifts. Our neighbors and friends M&J made me a very yummy cake and brought it over. It was nice to feel all that love reaching out to me, even when I wasn’t finding much time to be kind to myself. Thanks, y’all. Maybe Tilt and I will have a little joint birthday party later in the month, around his birthday.

Thanks, too, for supporting my logic concerning expensive boots. (more…)

So I was away Friday and Saturday, back in my sponsoring diocese. They fly in the graduating seminarians and show us off, so people can start to think about hiring us. An interesting and exhausting experience… Nobody walked right up and offered me a job, but I do feel like I know the first steps to take in the Great Job Hunt now. And it was nice that my various friends and acquaintances were very encouraging about wanting to find me a job and keep me in the diocese. We shall see how all that unfolds.

Convention ended early on Saturday, because there was snow in the forecast and folks were worried about driving home. My flight out wasn’t till 6:16, and I had three-plus hours to kill, even planning to get to the airport super-early. The convention hotel was adjacent to a mall. So I went shopping. What else could I do? I’d already finished my novel, and was tired of knitting. (more…)

I got to go thrifting this morning. Without my son. I managed this by the simple expedient of buying a couple extra hours of childcare from E, one of our childcare folks. Poor E, she seemed quite envious of my toddler-free expedition; I offered to take her toddler for a couple hours sometime so she can see what it feels like, too. (I used to thrift with Zag, but it was always a dicey proposition, and then the Goodwills stopped carrying toys because of all the recalls, and now there’s simply no way.) (more…)

Zag and I, and our new neighbor G and her three-year-old daughter W, had some very successful garage saling on Saturday. Actually, it was just one sale, and that one was at a school, not in a garage. School sales are good because there’s lots of stuff in one place, much of it tends to be kid-oriented, and they’re indoors (Saturday was quite rainy). We were probably there for 45 minutes or even an hour – which worked because it was a relatively enclosed, safe space where Zag and W could just wander around playing with stuff, while G and I shopped. Zag got so absorbed in something or another that he wet his pants, but that could happen to anyone. (more…)

I’m glad my readers have been amusing themselves commenting on my last post, since I haven’t had breath to say much for a few days. Thursday evening is the beginning of my weekend – such a relief to arrive at this point. Here are a few miscellaneous thoughts that are drifting through my busy head as I wind down. (more…)