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Friday, May 30, 2008

My Little Flirt





Isaac has adjusted to life in Texas better than Mike & I. Our first week here he got his first tooth, began crawling & pulling up. Now he has his SECOND tooth which broke through the day before yesterday. He says "Dadadada" all of the time & just the other day I asked him if he wanted his bottle and he said "bababa" I gave it to him & he drank it. He's just growing up faster than I ever could have imagined. His personality is huge...just look at his pictures...they are worth a thousand words. He's a MAJOR flirt too. Everywhere we go he gets the ladies. I went to the gym yesterday & there was a young girl filling in for the usual lady. All of the kids just got out of school for the summer & it was super crowded. When I picked Isaac up I asked how he was and she said she just LOVED him & his huge smile. She said he tried to take toys from the other kids, but no big deal. All of the little girls were helping take care of him. It's so funny. I never realized how much little girls love babies until taking Isaac out and about. Every time we go somewhere, like Wal-Mart or something, and Isaac starts getting fussy, some little girl comes out of nowhere and starts entertaining him until his smiling and giggling. When we go out to eat the waitresses and hostesses ooh and ah over him & he eats it up. A guy manager came to talk to him & Isaac didn't even give him the time of day. We went to Outback the other day & the table next to us had two senior citizen couples. Before they left they came over and asked if they could hold Isaac & one of the ladies offered a bunch of advice. Texas people are so nice!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

SAHMs then & now

One day not too long ago, a co-worker & I were complaining about how good the SAHMs (Stay at home moms) have it. She has a five-year-old & I was not even pregnant with Isaac yet. She'd drop her daughter off at school & see the SAHMs doing the same, but they were dressed for the gym & she was dressed for work. We were working as Paralegals at a Bankruptcy law firm 8-5 Monday-Friday. Sometimes it seemed we spent more time sitting around complaining about our job than actually doing the job. Both of us worked our way through college, ambitiously seeking that career that our generation told us we wanted. Once we gained the coveted degree & got the job, though, we realized that all we wanted to do was be mother's & wives & take care of our family. It's strange to hear myself say these things today. I'm a member of Generation X, a generation that watched our mothers & grandmothers generations fight for the rights we have today. It seems like so many people turn their noses up at the June Cleavers of yesterday, but yet secretly envy them. I think the last three decades of women fighting for equal rights have not been in vain, but the preceding decades had their strong points as well. I wish I knew how to cook & sew & keep my house spotless & raise my son all in stride. My education was about having a career. Now I wish that I had a degree in how to be a SAHM. Some churches seem to have the same idea. I wonder if they let you do it online...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

colloquialism

A 'colloquialism' is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms denote a manner of speaking or writing that is characteristic of familiar "common" conversation; informal colloquialisms can include words (such as "y'all" or "gonna"), phrases (such as "ain't nothin'", "dressed for bear" and "dead as a doornail"), or sometimes even an entire aphorism. ("There's more than one way to skin a cat"). (http://www.wikipedia.com/)

I like to write. I really, really like to write. The problem is all of the rules imposed on the process. I like to write the way that I speak. Easily, casually. I prefer to use punctuation where I'd use it in conversation. So what if it's not a complete sentence. So what if it's a run-on. Poetry has always been a passion of mine. I joined clubs where you submit your poems for feedback or constructive criticism. I'd get lectured on my style and the rules that I didn't follow properly. Some even had the audacity to "help me out" by rewriting my submission "correctly". I stopped writing for a long time. Now along comes BLOGGING. Hallelujah! I can write whatever I want to noone in particular. Of course I still have my lovely readers who love to correct me which is sometimes annoying at first, but usually helpful in the end. For instance, all of my spelling life I had been mispelling the word definitely until one fine day when I was corrected on my blog. Now it'll never happen again. It's like sitting behind someone who's got their tag hanging out (or worse, seeing someone with their fly down). It's wrong to let them walk away without making them aware of it. They may shoot you a dirty look (probably more out of embarrassment), but they are most likely grateful for being made aware. So, if I ramble, if I misspell, if I sound like an idiot, go ahead and let me know. I might call you a jerk under my breath, but I still appreciate the heads up!

Friday, May 09, 2008

Crawling, teeth & scorpions?

Add to the list of creepy crawlies in my house a frickin scorpion! I was in my room & heard all of this banging going on. I got freaked out thinking maybe someone was trying to break in. I saw all of my cats acting nutty & ran & turned on the light in the utility room/office & there's a scorpion cornering my Siamese. It was running around and around. I grabbed the nearest deadly weapon I could find (my wallet) & smashed it over & over again. Talk about YUCK! Now my poor Himalayan is so scared she's darting all around the place trying to hide. Thanks a lot Orkin man.

On another note, the cable guy came today. He's of Native American descent. I asked him about the weird dreamcatcher hanging on my fence. I can't remember if I described it in the last blog or not. It's made of barbed wire with an Indian bead necklace, leather and/or animal skin & some type of animal fur (could be coyote, Mike actually saw one by the road today on his hour trek to work this morning) & bones. It also looks like rattlesnake skulls too. The cable guy said that there are a lot of superstitious farmers out here & he thought it was Indian & that it was probably to keep whatever is in it away. Interesting.

...and how about my little man!!! He's already CRAWLING this week AND has his first tooth AND can pull himself up to completely standing. When I yell at a kitty he's like my little sidekick & "yells" too. He LOVES the kitties. He chases them everywhere in his walker. He loves to play with Shiloh (the Siamese) especially since he's the only one who plays back. He lets him grab his paws & ears & doesn't scratch or bite him. So far noone has gotten hurt. He also loves our parrot. We no longer have our lovebirds. They've gone to live with their Auntie Starr. The parrot, Gigi, has her own bedroom, but I bring her out during the day to spend time with the rest of the family. Isaac LOVES her & tries to figure out how to get her cage apart (he's all about buckles & zippers & tags & things like that). I still have to get onto the cats when they get too close (and she lets me know by sneezing over and over again...either she's allergic to cats or it's a nervous tick, I dunno). Overall, though, everyone seems to be assimilating pretty well. The outdoor kitties aren't allowed out anymore because I truly fear for their lives out here. Now I have two alpha males duking it out day & night which is a pain, but they'll get over it eventually.

I went today & signed up at a gym. This one is for women only. It's a small little place & decorated kinda like a Moulin Rouge set. I get my first session on Monday. I will lose 30lbs before I return to Louisiana in 6 months, that's my goal. Wish me follow-through please.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Texas

I finally have internet...sortof. It's this stupid ethernet thing that I'm cancelling today. It works, it doesn't work, whatever it feels like doing or not doing it does or doesn't do. We've been putting Isaac in his own room for the first time. The night before last he woke up crying and crying around 11 p.m.. We put him in our bed & he fell asleep with us until Mike went to work, then we put him back in his bed. Last night he woke up screaming uncontrollably around the same time. It was like he was asleep still, but he was screaming at the top of his lungs as if he were in pain. There was no consoling him. Mike made him a bottle & as soon as he laid next to me with it in his mouth he went to sleep. This is the first time he's ever slept in our bed all night with us before. I get worried about him being in his own room right now because there are so many SPIDERS here. I had Orkin come out & spray yesterday, but there are still creepy crawlies everywhere. Mike's first night in the house he saw a black widow AND a brown recluse!!! I have never been so afraid of spiders in my life. Oh & there's this one that's called a "child of the night" that looks like a mix of a spider & a scorpion. Scary. The Orkin guy says it has little man syndrome & just tried to LOOK scary, but he's harmless. Well, it worked on me, I smashed him with a shoe!

There are a lot of differences here than anywhere I've ever lived. The worst is the WIND. It's horrible. I went outside to check the mail yesterday & my hat blew off my head & I had to chase after it. Once I got the mail, the wind ripped a piece out of my hand & it literally disappeared! It looked like junk mail for the second that I saw it though. The dust storms are horrible, it's like we are living in the Middle East. I'm going to have to get one of those scarves or something to keep the sand off! Oh, & the FIRES. I have seen two major fires in the short amount of time I've been here. It is no doubt the desert. When you walk in my yard all you here is "crunch" "crunch". I saw my first tumbleweed yesterday in the backyard.

The neighborhood I live in has every street named after an Indian tribe. My street is Hopi. I read up on them & there's an interesting belief system in things like UFOs etc. http://www.crystalinks.com/hopi1.html

I've noticed that there are a lot of Hispanic people here. I'd say half of the people I've encountered speak Spanish. It seems like people here are happier in general than back home. Either that or they are just SO MUCH nicer!

It's interesting to see how different cities/states deal with things like mail and garbage. Here, every neighborhood has back alley-ways with small dumpsters. There's a dumpster for every four houses. Most neighborhoods have mailbox groupings like apartment complexes (which is kind of a pain). The absolute BEST thing EVER though, that Midland, TX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland,_Texas) has over Baton Rouge is their WONDERFUL Loop 250. You can go across town & back again 5 times in the time it would take you to get from Perkins to the interstate down College Drive. I can't wait until they get their loop there! Too bad it'll still be a couple of years.

I've also seen some other interesting wildlife. One was in my driveway (I think I ran over it). It's a horned lizard. There was also this itty bitty furry thing that darted across the road in my neighborhood. It looked kind of like a squirrel, but smaller, almost like a chipmunk. I wanted to call it a Prairie Dog, but I really have no idea. The birds are different too. I wish I hadn't put my bird book in storage. I love seeing new species & learning their names, guess I'll need to get another one.

Mainly we are surrounded by oilfields. Even in my neighborhood thereare pumpjacks (those oil drill looking thingies). When you first get here there is the slight odor of oil, but then it goes away once you get used to it.
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