Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Caroline’s reaching that question stage. I’ve been sitting with her for 45 minutes waiting for her to go to sleep. No dice.

This is a beautiful bed.
I love you.
Did Dodo love me too?
Was she a nice grandmother?
Like Jo’s teacher. Her teacher is nice.
How did she make this bed?
She bought it in the store?
Did God make all the city?
Does God live in heaven?
He’s up up up in the sky?
He makes it rain in the world?
Then there’s Jesus.
Does Jesus live in the sky too?
Is Jesus God’s friend?
When does God come to Jesus’s town?

Poor Jo. Tomorrow is her first day of “big kid school” – kindergarten – and she’s trying to pretend she’s not nervous. Her little body is giving her away though. All day today she was exceptionally cuddly with me, which is definitely unusual. It’s not that she’s not a loving girl, but she’s more of a tickler than a hugger. Then tonight she had problems sleeping. First she came downstairs around 10:15 and said her tummy was making funny noises. We gave her a big glass of milk and sent her back to bed. Then around an hour later, she called down the stairs – there was a little accident. That hasn’t happened for 2 years or so.

I’m nervous, too!

It’s pretty impressive when you get them all together.

The brown ones are all recluses, all found in my house. The two black widows were found at a ranch in South Texas.

Rubber Johnny – mutagenic child freaks out to Aphex Twin.
Supersize me! (with whiskey) – a sendup of Morgan Spurlock’s overwrought McDonald’s saga.
The Nut Bra – supports the boys when they’re feeling low.
The Little Girl – forgotten by everyone – wonderful horrible dark little tale.
Salad Fingers – the newest installment.

Enjoy! Some links might not be safe for work.

I used to play games with people, face to face, all the time. Endless amounts of Gin Rummy with my friend A. Frequent bouts of Trivial Pursuit. Darts. Rummikub at the ranch. Constant unending sessions of Spades (or Hearts when we couldn’t get a fourth). Poker. I really really miss that. Until tonight I didn’t even remember how much I enjoyed it – now I have, and have a real urge to interact with people in the real world.

Newest addiction – Peekaboom.

Jo had her first full-fledged prolonged public tantrum today at the mall. Actually, multiple tantrums. Basically it was an “I want” which was denied. A solid hour of screaming ensued. We touched on “I don’t want you as my mommy anymore”, but luckily skipped “I’m running away” and “I don’t love you”.

It all ended up with Caroline getting a special trip to the store for a balloon (she was almost self-righteously a good girl) and Jo getting nothing but a spanking. The mean words don’t bother me that much, since I know she was just trying all her limited arsenal to get me to buy her the outfit. The insistence on having it her way NOW is what I worry about. I do not want to raise a spoiled child, and hopefully this will help to teach her the appropriate way of asking for things, and accepting that she’s not always going to get what she wants.

I never guessed how rough the pleading would be.. “I’ll be the best little girl ever, I’ll do anything you want, please Mommy, don’t you love me?” Man, that stuff is hard to listen to. I know somewhere my own mom is up there laughing at me, cause I’m sure I pulled all that BS and worse.

Tonight, after the storm, I explained to her that when she told me she didn’t want me to be her mommy that it upset me. That I had fights with my mommy too when I was little, but now she’s not around even to have fights with, and I miss her – just as much as Jo would miss me if I were gone.

I’ve owned two houses in Austin, both next to very big hills. At the last house, kids used to daredevil down the hill on their bikes. One time a boy lost control and I heard his tortured “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!” as he flew into the neighbor’s yard.

The house we’re in now is on a much busier street, so we have seen 2 or three car accidents in the last four years. Relatively mundane, no real injuries.

The strangest thing I’ve seen on the street just happened half an hour ago. There was a prolonged squealing noise of tires on rubber. I glanced out the dining room windows in time to see a white VW Rabbit slowly promenading down the hill, like a grande dame making an entrance into a party. It came to a stop just beyond our driveway. The car was locked, not running, nobody inside of it. Not in gear, handbrake set. Just ooched down the hill all by itself. Surreal.

Update: The car in question. Click picture for larger version.