Potatoes in the Mist

Obama is definitely my favorite president. Every time I look at my Facebook feed, there's news of him making more people eligible for overtime, protecting the environment, and making health care more accessible. I really wish he could run for a third term.

So I was listening to Medulla by Bjork on the exercise bike. It's kind of delightfully weird - different from all her other stuff and pretty much all other music. So, in one of those strange cross-connections the mind sometimes makes, I remembered a class I took in 1996 or so, about the sublime in British poetry. The classic example was Keats and his ode to the Grecian urn - an urn depicting a runner who can never quite catch what he's chasing. The sublime is indescribable and hard to capture. So this made me wonder if Medulla is sublime in that sense - because it's less accessible, more challenging, but at the same time more enjoyable than other music. Maybe things are more enjoyable when we can't fully capture them.

Does anyone else have an overexplainer in their life? This is the kind of person who writes an email with exhaustive, boring detail. When you reply (out of politeness and nothing else), they write another email which is a virtual duplicate of the first. They also say, "See previous email" in case you missed reading the exact same thing. These tend to be the same people who use voicemail instead of texting, and their voicemails are always unintelligible. AARRGGGHHH!!

Z had viral conjunctivitis. This means that her left eye got a little pink but she didn't need to take eye drops. (For bacterial conjunctivitis, which I had last year, you need drops.) Anyway, her eyes look good now, and she seems more enthused about camp again. "Do I go to Puppy Group today?" she asked, and seemed pleased when I told her she would go on Monday. So maybe she was just down on camp because she was sick.

Last night I had trouble sleeping because I kept hearing someone whooping and shrieking. I was puzzled by the source; we're on the 17th floor. Then I realized someone must be on their terrace. I peeked out the bathroom window and saw someone sitting on her terrace, apparently by herself (though maybe I just couldn't see the other person). I flashed back to my college roommate throwing the window open and yelling, "SHUT UP!" and tried to come up with the least inflammatory phrasing possible (New Yorkers are a scrappy bunch). I said, "Quiet down please, thanks." After that, I didn't hear anything. The whole thing reminded me of Rear Window. 

The cashier at Gristedes asked Zoe, "Do you like camp?" She yelled, "No!" The woman in front of me said, "That was strong." I hope she gets to like it more. Before it started, she was really excited about swimming in the warm baby pool with an adjustable floor. They make it so shallow that the kids can walk around in it. When they get more confident, they lower the floor so they can do some "real" swimming. But she seems not be a big fan so far. I guess if we have to, we can cancel the second session, though I'm not sure how much of a refund they give. She also napped twice this week, which she hasn't done in months, and that makes it harder to put her to bed at night.

If you could sing like anyone you wanted, who would you choose? I would probably pick Stevie Nicks.

This morning I went for a bike ride. On my way back, I saw a couple with a really cute dog. It was small and tan, with curly hair and a jaunty demeanor. The man spotted a cab and kissed his wife goodbye. Then the wife held the dog up so the man could kiss it goodbye. He puckered up but the dog kept avoiding him. Finally he gave up and got in the cab. A few minutes later, the dog was sniffing another dog's face enthusiastically.

Zoe was tired after camp today. 

Ugh. In a month from today I'll turn forty.

I'm listening to "West End Girls" on my phone...that song came out when I was in 5th grade or so. I remember the Pet Shop Girls' next single, "What Have I Done to Deserve This" with Dusty Springfield, and how I waited for it to come on the radio (admittedly not a long wait) and had my TDK tape ready and pressed "Record" after the DJ stopped talking. There used to be this sense of ceremony about songs that is missing now...every new Madonna song used to be an event...now you just buy the single on iTunes or Amazon. Though admittedly it is easier to play a song on your phone instead of putting the needle on a record or rewinding a cassette...then again, vinyl is "in" right now...

We're going to see The Lion King on Saturday. It's so nice to see a play and not have to find a babysitter. Because we're bringing the kids! This may or may not work out; we'll see. I'm pretty confident that E will be fine. At 3 1/2, Z may be a bit too young. I'm almost done with the Maeve Binchy short story collection I'm reading. I had put it aside months ago because I don't always "click" with short stories. I'm glad I picked it up again, because I really enjoyed it. It's too bad she won't be writing any more. But there may be another treasure trove. You never know.

Tonight I made brownies from scratch. The last two times I made brownies, they were from a package. It's probably not surprising, but these were vastly superior. Even the part you lick from the bowl was better. The link is here .

So I went to that local-but-not-in-my-backyard park again. I really like it. It's a little further away so it doesn't have neighborhood politics. And I saw 2 moms I like: one who has a little red-haired boy and another with an Australian accent ("roight," "noice") who is about to have a second son. She didn't want to know the gender but the midwife slipped up and revealed it when she was discussing an ultrasound. I've also been biking by the river a lot. I'm reading Chestnut Street , a posthumous collection of stories by Maeve Binchy.

So I just brought Z to a local park. Not the one behind my apartment, because they took the swings down for the duration of the summer. Peak time for the playground. Nice planning, right? Anyway, this other park has swings and is actually shadier and nicer, just further away. There was a nice older lady sitting near me and she struck up a conversation. I knew she wasn't from New York because she was very friendly and had traces of a Southern accent, which I always find charming. Anyway, we were chatting away, and then her daughter sat near us. She was around my age, definitely in her thirties at least, but she acted like a petulant teenager. When her mother said, "I just love it here," the daughter rolled her eyes. And when her mother asked, "Do you come here in the winter?" the daughter snapped, "I would NEVER sit outside in the winter!" (Also, earlier, I overheard the daughter say to her, "We don't have to talk," though I didn't hea...

Yesterday was Eric's birthday party. I enjoyed it more than I thought it would. Maybe I'm more social than I think I am...at least when I get to pick the people who will be there :) Afterward, D agreed that everyone had a good time, but he was griping that the pizzas were too small. But there were 12 of them! At that point, size doesn't matter.

Today is Eric's birthday. It seems so strange to me. Seven years ago, he was a baby in a hospital blanket, and now he's all grown up. (Well, not quite.)

I just saw a savory basil pesto hummus doughnut on Pinterest. Shouldn't doughnuts be sweet?

So I was home this weekend and decided to renew my driver's license. It had been expired for nearly 4 years, and Zoe lost the old one. One of the required items to renew is your old license. But surprisingly, they said my social security number was enough. They didn't even ask me for ID. And I passed the eye test with flying colors. It's nice when something you were stressed out about turns out to be no big deal.