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| teen fiction |
| 07.26.04 (2:33 pm) [edit] |
I was catching up on blogs today and ran across a post by [url=www.poundy.com]Pound[/url] , talking about the passing of the great Paula Danziger. That got me thinking about all the books I devoured as a pre-teen and teenager. Some of my favorites were:[u]Julian Thompson[/u] The Grounding of Group Six [u]Paula Danziger[/u] The Cat Ate My Gymsuit There's a Bat in Bunk Five [u]Judy Blume[/u] Deenie Blubber Forever Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself [u]Francine Pascal[/u] (the original) Sweet Valley High series [u]Bette Green[/u] Summer of My German Soldier [u]Lois Duncan[/u] Stranger With My Face Daughters of Eve [u]Catherine Sefton[/u] In a Blue Velvet Dress What books did you love? |
| 4 Comments |
| no place like home |
| 07.26.04 (1:10 pm) [edit] |
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I doubt I've ever been so glad to get home. We just spent the past week in Cape Cod; our family's first-ever vacation. We stayed in a cottage (funny word for a house bigger than our apartment) in Woods Hole with DH's mom and her dog. The cottage had no AC and was alive with mold spores. This particular Jewish princess was not amused. I need a little distance from the past week, but I'll share a few highlights: 1. Jacob and Danny shouting "Under the bridge!" gleefully every time we drove, well, you know. 2. Driving that big-ass, comfy-as-hell rental Explorer for a week. I don't care if it makes me a yuppie scumbag, but I loved it. 3. Eating lobster, clams and mussels with drawn butter. 4. Jacob tasting one of DH's salt & vinegar potato chips and announcing "it tastes like it feels like hurting." And then asking for more. 5. Jacob leaning over the toilet in a public restroom, holding up the toilet seat with one hand and steadying himself with the other, and letting out a huge sigh of relief as he peed. 6. Danny leaning over to give me kisses while he ate lunch. I know some of you are waiting for more Cabrini stuff, so let me get some work done and I'll get back to the story. I promise. |
| 1 Comments |
| so much for the power of prayer |
| 07.15.04 (2:34 pm) [edit] |
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I guess it only works when you really deserve it and it's not just praying for something selfish, like getting a job you really want. What's worse, not getting an interview, or getting interviewed and not getting the job? |
| 4 Comments |
| whither cabrini, part 2 |
| 07.15.04 (12:13 pm) [edit] |
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So, January 1998. DH and I sign on the dotted line and descend into panic. Where the heck were we going to come up with the down payment? We went home and called our parents. I can't remember who we called first. My parents were probably a little cautious but aware of the potential value of the home. I don't know if DH's mom really got what we were doing, but was not in a position to be able to help us financially at the time. DH's dad, however, thought about it, and decided to hand us our new home on a platter. Within a few weeks, we received two checks, totalling enough for a 5% down payment. Yay verily, did the townspeople nervously rejoice! We stumbled our way through the mortgage process, helped enormously by the fact that we had another friend in the business. She sort of held our hands through it, and figured out how to get us the kind of financing we needed. Every time I took the Brown line train, I could see the landscape of Orchard Park before we turned the bend between Sedgewick & Armitage. I tried to picture living there, and just couldn't. I always imagined the model home, which was larger (and uglier, frankly) than what we were getting. The house was to be completed by the end of October, initially. The first few construction delays didn't surprise us all that much. I was on a business trip in Armonk, NY when I got the call that the home was being further delayed until early spring of 1999. I called Ian in a panic. We had no way to really fight, and nothing to gain from rescinding our hold on the contract. As Ian said, we just wouldn't be able to afford anywhere near the space for the money we had to spend. We stuck it out, DH with far more patience than I. We tossed out our plans to wait for the house before trying to have a baby, and announced to our families in June that I was expecting. 1999 brought the passing of DH's father (pancreatic cancer) and my grandmother (heart, age). I made it through morning sickness okay but was knocked off my feet by hormones (Zoloft). We made our primary selections for the house, which became moot as the delays just multiplied. The construction foreperson was a woman who smoked heavily, and apparently drank a lot, too. She cancelled our appointments to re-make our selections countless times, each time with another farfetched excuse (but often sounding like she was still drunk from the night before). I finally hit the wall in early winter of 1999. I was hugely pregnant, DH's father had just died, and my parents were supposed to be doing this with us. Debbie the Foreperson called me 30 minutes before we were to meet and asked if we could postpone it again. "Hell, NO!" I responded. Hell hath no fury like a pregnant woman annoyed. 45 minutes later, we trooped into one of the empty houses. Debbie reeked of stale booze and cigarettes. My mom reached for her purse. "Anyone for an Altoids?" Jacob Alexander joined our world five weeks early, on Wednesday, January 27th of 2000, but we didn't have a house. We brought him home to our apartment and had him sleep in a Pack 'N Play bassinet, figuring the house would be done anytime so it was silly to have the crib delivered. (FYI, this is not a recommended move. Jacob slept poorly if at all. We had the crib delivered a few bleary-eyed months later and he then started to sleep.) Finally, a few days before Labor Day of 2000, we took possession of our little dream home. Located in the last row, it was at the southeast border of the property. A three-story townhome, it featured a single-car garage, a few closets, a den and a half bath downstairs. The second floor held a huge kitchen and a combination living/dining room with a fireplace. The top floor had a regular bedroom in front, a full bath and linen closet in the hallway, and our master "suite" in the back, complete with another full bath and a small emergency walkway that doubled as a nice place to read or watch the air & water show in the summer. We were so thrilled to get into our home and have all new things, that the small details not well-completed didn't faze us much. Second bathtub drain fitted wrong so that the water leaked into the living room? Dryer air shaft bent the wrong way? Crappy, pickable locks on the doors? DH and I settled in, getting to know our neighbors slowly. For the most part, everyone was so damned happy to have finally taken possession that we began to hang out together and enjoy the common areas as they were completed. By the summer of 2001, the landscaping was as done as it was going to get. We made several close friends, and I ran for the townhome association board. It was an idyllic time (other than us both getting laid off that year). DH got into having the greenest patch of lawn in the complex, Jacob bonded like glue with Olivia from two doors down, and I commiserated at the YMCA with my friend Rachel, who had already been laid off twice. Little did we know what was coming 'round the corner. [i]To be continued, again....[/i] |
| 2 Comments |
| time share in jesus world |
| 07.14.04 (9:47 am) [edit] |
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I haven't the foggiest idea how we got from discussing documentation to this, but two colleagues just had me in tears of laughter talking about Jesus World, AKA the Holy Land Experience. I'd never heard of this. It's a "biblical history museum that takes you 7,000 miles away and 3,000 years back in time to the land of the Bible." No kidding... check out the map. I'm sure in biblical times, you could see I-94 from the Temple of the Great King. The web site promises "fun and excitement," and states "it is our sincere hope that you will see God and His Word exalted – that you will be encouraged in your search for enduring truth and the ultimate meaning of life. The Holy Land Experience is a Bible-believing, Christ-centered ministry." Another MOT colleague and I were laughing about what great "gets" we would be.... he said there's probably a tote board there where the museum workers could check off that they got a certain number of Jews to convert. I suggested he take his family near the end of the month, because if you helped them fulfill their quotas, you could get some good swag. "I won a time share at Jesus World!" Yep, I'm going to hell. |
| 4 Comments |
| whither cabrini, part 1 |
| 07.13.04 (10:29 am) [edit] |
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Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune is doing a big series on Cabrini-Green, the infamous housing project that sits smack in the middle of the city. This brings back fairly recent memories for me. In the late 1990s, DH and I were both working in technology. I was hired away from my job at CNA to join a technology vendor, and he was freelancing as a web designer & developer. We had been living in our apartment for a couple of years, and I was dreaming of owning our own place. While our apartment had incredible sunlight and big rooms, the amenities were dump-worthy; the power blew on a regular basis, we never had hot water in the kitchen, and at least one winter, we didn't have any hot water for several days at a time. I convinced DH around the end of 1997 that we should start looking for a place to buy. The interest rates were the lowest in years, and I figured the tax break could help us, too. A friend in real estate sent me to look at a few open houses to get an idea of what we could buy in our price range... a garden-level condo, a small loft in Wicker Park, and a townhome in Ravenswood. The townhome really got me. It had lots of windows, beautiful hardwood floors, multiple bathrooms, and two balconies. DH agreed to go look with me and our real estate friend, Ian, to see if perhaps a new construction townhome could be our new home. The first place he took us was to the model home at Orchard Park Townhomes, so that DH could see what a completed home might look like. Orchard Park was sort of a shock. It was a townhome community being built stage by stage one block north of Cabrini-Green. It's red brick homes were shadowed on one side by city-run senior citizen housing, and the skyline on the other. I loved the houses, the location, and the potential, but figured DH would never go for it -- too risky. Besides, Ian had said there were no two-bedroom homes left, and the three-bedroom homes were out of our price range. However, the model salesperson told us that a two-bedroom had come back on the market the night before, because the guy buying it was getting transferred. The riskiest prospect of Orchard Park, for some at least, was not necessarily the location, but the fact that it was to be a mixed-income housing experiment. Forty-five percent of the homes were being sold at market value, 30% slightly less for just-barely qualified buyers, and 25% would remain in ownership by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), for rentals to former Cabrini residents. I found the prospect slightly daunting but pretty exciting, too. I didn't know if we were barely-qualified or completely qualified, but I loved the idea of this new kind of community. When DH and I went to the other townhome site, we were a little turned off. The location was bordered on one side by train tracks, and surrounded by industrial and trucking companies. It was much farther north and west than I really wanted to live, and more expensive, too, once you added in the basics that were included at Orchard Park. After the second presentation, we sat in Ian's car, pretty subdued. I was depressed, and said so. Suddenly, to my utter surprise, DH said "why don't we get the house with the skyline view?" Ian drove us back to Orchard Park, where Anita, the salesperson, just about fell into DH's lap. She was sort of the slightly inappropriate older mom of a friend who flirted a little too much. I couldn't possibly be offended, and DH didn't see it, but Ian and I laughed about it afterwards ("maybe, if you'd slept with her, we could have gotten free upgrades!"). So in January 1998, DH and I started the route to becoming homeowners... in the most controversial housing project since Cabrini went up. [i]To be continued...[/i] |
| 2 Comments |
| performance review |
| 07.07.04 (9:52 am) [edit] |
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My six-month review is coming up (now that I've been in this position for eight months). I'm absolutely dreading it. Not to sound like a whiner (any more than usual), but I'm really uncomfortable in my group, and very unsure of my abilities in this job. Basically when I came on board, it was a sink-or-swim situation. I was pretty much left to my own devices. Most of my group gets breakfast and lunch together every day.... but I'm not included. People from other areas of MIS have mentioned that I'm the only friendly person in my group. It's probably true, but after eight months of being either ignored or treated like a retarded cousin, I don't feel very friendly. Just yesterday, I finally applied for a transfer to another position (communications & training coordinator, yeah!) and I'm just praying that comes through. But in the meantime, I'm supposed to prep for my review. I'm having a hard time filling out the performance appraisal form, because my girliness keeps getting in the way. There is a definite lack of team-spirit in my group. People totally hoard knowledge, which is insane and self-defeating. I'm always embarrassed by what I don't know, which is silly because I do seek out training, etc. It's not my fault these people are so unwilling to share knowledge. I mean, my co-workers don't even watch The Simpsons. Ever. How am I supposed to relate? I think I'd better work hard to plan my part of the review so that I don't burst into tears and complain that nobody in the group will play with me.... Please, please, pray that I get this other position!!!! *** Here's what my one of my bosses wrote to me about the review: [b]I’m close to having your review ready. What I need from you is to write up a short document describing your past 6 month accomplishments, your future goals and an explanation of where you need help, etc. This can be free form of your choosing. I’ve included the document we used to have everyone use even though it is geared toward the technical staff. You might want to take a look at it and you will see the kind of stuff I am looking for. Use it if you want.[/b] So I wrote this back: [i]“My first six months in QA were spent mainly basking in the wise glow of my managers. Their combined brilliance, charm, and attractiveness spurred me to dizziness at times. My goals are to emulate them as much as possible, shower them with thoughtful and expensive gifts, and to do everything possible to make their lives easier while at work, including making coffee, performing reflexology, and learning to play the zither so that I may play soothing music.”[/i] |
| 1 Comments |
| germ warfare |
| 07.05.04 (6:23 pm) [edit] |
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Can you believe poor Danny is sick again? The poor little thing was up all night last night. Puke count for the past 24 hours is up to four (between my parents' booster seat and my hair, he's been quite prolific). Hours he kept me up last night, crying piteously? I think seven. I believe I slept for about two and a half hours, total. Danny's fever when I left for work this morning was 103.7. Luckily, Jacob went home with the nanny this afternoon. Alberta was having a big family barbecue early this evening, and welcomed Jacob. When I stopped by her house after work to bring him home, he didn't want to leave, and she wanted him to stay overnight. Gee, you want to keep one of my kids when the other one is sick and miserable and I'm too woozy from a migraine to even brush my own teeth? ABSOLUTELY! Jacob barely paused his following various Belizian grandchildren around the yard to let me plant a kiss on his forehead. He was two-fisting lime popsicle halves, and scampering after one of Alberta's grandsons like a puppy. I got home and found Danny curled like a baby shrimp against DH's chest. Eventually, DH turned off whatever James Bond dreck was on the Spike channel* to fall asleep holding Danny. [i](*Don't freak out on me. It was a Roger Moore.)[/i] Danny wakes up about once every 20 minutes, half-opens his eyes, and settles back against his daddy. He's listless and limp, but his fever is down. I'm going to finish my blog, pound my sleeping pills with a big bottle of cold water, and sleep for as long as Danny and Big Fat Cat will let me. Sweet dreams! |
| 1 Comments |
| hooray for hollywood |
| 07.05.04 (6:13 pm) [edit] |
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My mom called yesterday when I was knee-deep in the kids' room, sorting toy parts. She and my dad wanted to know if they could take Jacob to see Shrek 2. I should explain that Jacob is scared of the dark and of loud noises, so we have avoided that little trap (ask me sometime about the circus from hell). However, my parents have been dying to take Jakey to the movies, so DH and I checked with each other and said okay. Even better, I was going to go, too. My folks picked up Jake & me, and we trooped off to Old Orchard. My dad and I took the little guy into Sweet Factory, and let him pick out candy (lollipops, both regular and baby-bottle style). Neurotically early as usual, we were the first ones in the theater. We grabbed Jakey a booster seat, and got him settled down between me and my dad. He sat there, wrapped in a blanket and my cardigan, with his hands over his ears. I got Jakey to stop holding his ears by offering him a lollipop (it worked). After he obliterated the candy, he dug into the medium popcorn I'd bought. he was having such a great time crunching popcorn and sipping his very own cup of Sprite (ooh, soda!) that he didn't even flinch when the lights went down and the previews started up. He did really great until the exciting conclusion, when the sound level was apocalyptic, and he was in sugar overload. At the height of the noise, he screamed "I WANNA GO HOME!" at the top of his lungs. Amazingly, it was so loud that nobody heard him but me. I wrapped my arms around him and snuggled him, and by the time the credits rolled he was fine. Even more amazingly, he had polished off two lollipops, almost all of that popcorn, and a Sprite -- without throwing up! We stumbled out of the theater, stopping long enough at the Customer Service desk for my dad (the lifetime DGA member) to inform them that the print of the movie was reprehensible. They offered apologies and replacement movie tickets, which my dad gallantly accepted. By the time we got to the car, Jacob was supremely unimpressed with the whole experience, but the adults were elated. I was thrilled that Jacob had made it through the movie with his hands away from his ears, and with no apparent damage to his psyche. (Don't worry, I'm screwing up enough to keep him in therapy later on.) My parents were even more excited. They now had an excuse to see every cute-looking kiddie movie on its way through the city. When we got back to my parents' place, Jacob was ready to sit back and watch the first Shrek, twice in a row. Thank goodness for the miracle of DVD. Now we just have to bide our time until the Shrek 2 DVD comes out.... |
| 1 Comments |
| holiday weekend |
| 07.02.04 (11:04 am) [edit] |
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Holiday weekends suck ass. I'm sorry to be unpatriotic and unAmerican and all that stuff, but the traffic around here is a nightmare around holiday weekends. Add to the 4th stuff the fact that the White Sox are at Wrigley Field today, tomorrow and Sunday. The good thing about living near Wrigley Field is that you can walk to games. These are also pretty friendly neighborhoods with relatively affordable rents. The bad thing is, we can't afford tickets, we have two kids too small to go anyway, and the traffic gets just nuts. I kind of wish I had the forethought to make plans and stuff, but I hadn't (as usual). Despite the commercials forcing information about sales and barbecue-goodie specials, we really can't spend any money. Oh, and the forecast is rain, rain, and more rain (what the hell?). Boy, I sound really cranky; sorry about that. Hopefully the weather will hold up during the day so we can at least take the kids to a playground, and maybe even the zoo. (The Lincoln Park Zoo is free, which is amazing, and has a brand new Regenstein ape exhibit opening this weekend. Supposedly, the apes have special buttons they can push to force puffs of water or air out over the audience. I'll report back.) Anyway, I'm going to take a nice long shower and then Danny and I are heading to the burbs to do some shopping with my mom (she's buying me clothes for my birthday). Then it's back to fight the game traffic to pick up Jakey from summer camp. Maybe we'll head to Dominick's for a $5 pizza tonight. Here's wishing a sunny, low-congestion holiday weekend for everyone.... |
| 1 Comments |
| finally! |
| 07.01.04 (10:35 am) [edit] |
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The suspense was killing me.
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| 2 Comments |
| more questionnaire stuff |
| 07.01.04 (8:50 am) [edit] |
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Again, this is totally poached from another blog (except for my answers, natch). [i][b][u]Deep Thoughts About Life And You In It [/u][/b][/i] [b]Do you consider yourself tolerant of others?[/b] Not really. I think I'm pretty impatient and judgemental. [b]Do you have any secrets?[/b] I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. [b]Do you like your handwriting?[/b] Nope, it's pretty sloppy and not very feminine. [b]What is the compliment you get from most people? [/b] I don't get a lot of compliments. People used to tell me how smart and efficient I was when I worked in the store. Now, even my kid likes the nanny better (as of yesterday... wait until she has to give him a time-out!). [b]What's your biggest fear?[/b] I'm always scared something will happen to one of my kids. I think that's the biggest fear of any parent. [b]Can you sing?[/b] Yes, though I think I'm losing my vocal strengths. One of my secret ambitions is to sing in a little club someday. [b]What is your greatest strength and weakness?[/b] I think my greatest strength is that I'm passionate... about my kids, my hobbies, etc. My biggest weakness is a lack of discipline. [b]If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?[/b] Duh, my lack of discipline! Oh, and I'd like to be naturally thin and toned. And rich. [b]Do you think life has been good so far?[/b] Sometimes, yes. I'm lucky to have a nice husband and happy, healthy kids. But I'd love to have fewer worries and more stability. [b]What do you like the most about your body?[/b] Not much right now, but I'm working on that. I do have really long legs. [b]Do you think you are good looking?[/b] Sometimes I do... [b]Are you self confident?[/b] No, I secretly believe everyone thinks I'm a loser. [i][b][u]Do You... [/u][/b][/i] [b]Smoke?[/b] Nope. Every once in a while I crave a Marlboro Light though. [b]Do drugs?[/b] No. I'm absolutely against them. [b]Read the newspaper?[/b] I read the news online, and parts of the Sunday paper. [b]Pray?[/b] Sometimes. [b]Sleep with stuffed animals?[/b] Only if you count our big fat 20 lb cat. [b]Take walks in the rain?[/b] Sure. To take Jake to school, get the groceries, get to work, etc. Walk in the rain just to do it? Who has that kind of time? [b]Talk to people even though you hate them?[/b] I don't "hate" many people. But I am willing to at least make small talk with anyone. [b]Like to drive fast?[/b] I love to! [b]Hurt yourself?[/b] Other than berating myself regularly, no. Not on purpose. [b]Eaten something that made other people sick?[/b] Well, sort of. My DH is allergic to peanuts, and once I served biscotti that I had been assured didn't have any. Ten hours in the ER says the shopgirl was wrong. [b]Been in love?[/b] Yes, a few times. [b]Gone skinny dipping?[/b] Yes. [b]Had surgery? [/b] Yes, several times. [b]Played strip poker?[/b] I don't think so.... but I did go to college, so who knows? [b]Been on stage?[/b] Yes [b]Pulled an all nighter?[/b] Ugh, yes. [b]Talked on the phone all night?[/b] Yes. DH has the old phone bills to prove it. [b]Slept together with the opposite sex w/o actually having sex?[/b] I'm married, aren't I? [b]Met a famous person?[/b] Yes, a few. [b]Been on radio/tv?[/b] Yes, both. [b]Bungee jumped?[/b] Good Lord, no!!! I try not to do anything that simulates my own death. |
| 1 Comments |
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