Those are silver - and gold

We went down to Santa Fe tonight to have dinner with some friends from our days there.

Both the other women were friends from our Mom's Club. It's amazing how fast that time went - at the time it seemed so slow - caring for young, really young, babies. We went to the Genoveva Chavez Center community recreation center (and you must say it: HEN o viva - one of my first Gringa lessons) therapy pool for Water Babies - that's where I met the first friend. (And then dragged her kicking and screaming into joining the Mom's Club, which she was shortly the president of.) We went every Tuesday and Thursday for - years! (I remember her saying: Every day you fall more and more in love with your baby. At the time, I was still pregnant and her boy was eleven months - an eon of difference. Now the kiddlings play together and miss each other and are regular pals.)(And she was just so right about that.)

The other friend I knew directly from the Mom's Club - it was a great organization in Santa Fe, and provided at least one event to do, almost every day. We went to a park, we went out to lunch, we met for a playdate in a community room of the downtown Santa Fe library, or for some kind of informational speech at the Wild Oats community room. It was great.

Seeing all my old friends in California made me realize - I have "old" friends here, too. Not the twenty year kind, but the five year kind. And that's enough. Enough to make me love them, and miss them, and be glad we made the effort to get together.

(PS thanks for asking about Tiny Person's eyes...the short of it is, she has fairly poor vision, and it makes her go cross eyed. She needs glasses and a couple hours a day patching of one eye and doing close-in work - books, painting. The latter should get better with the patching and the vision may get better and needs watching....So nothing too bad, so long as we take care of it now. Otherwise she could lose some vision. Which, obviously. Bad.)


Not the pool we went to at the Chavez Center.

Read more!

We closed our eyes . . .

We went off to California (yea! again!) last week, for three stupendous reasons:
- to see my new niece (welcome to Planet Earth, Baby L! We love you already!)
- to have a second-opinion eye appointment for Tiny Person
- to attend my college reunion

I would tell you how many years it's been since I graduated but (gasp) I can't admit to it. I will say when I was in college, one of my close guy friends loved the song: We Close Our Eyes (and the world has turned around again) by Oingo Boingo. I remember thinking I would probably think that was true. I do. 20 years (dang! I said!) went dang fast. Like, we closed our eyes, and the world turned around again.

(And that guy moved to Atlanta, had three kids, and was unable to attend the reunion due to work and kid commitments. He closed his eyes...)

You can't believe all . . . the things I wanted to do before the reunion. I planned them all. In November. When there was plenty of time! When I could be a completely different person by May! A person who exercised! Regularly! And ate well! And had her teeth whitened! I was going to be all sparkly (teeth) and fit (elsewhere) by then.

But I knew deep down my friends would love me as is, plus, mostly, I've been thinking about doing those things for twenty years - why start now? Plus my friends might be startled by a shiny, fit version of me. But I did bring Spousal and two small adorable children - all clearly new additions since they saw me last - and who were all quite a hit - and so they were distracted by the sparkly goodness of the three of them.

And as for the second-opinion appointment for Tiny Person's eyes - well, let's just say, is it a good thing when the second-opinion doctor has a very different second opinion? I mean, you're happy you got it - I guess - no, no, you are, especially when you thought the first guy was bordering on being a joker - but also, you're pretty incensed at the first guy.

So you're glad, and incensed, at the same time. I mean, wouldn't it be better if they AGREED? Yes, yes it would. But then, in this case, they would both be wrong, so that would be bad.

I'm sure you followed all that. The philosophical analysis of whether it's better or worse to get a differing second opinion. I mean, clearly, BETTER, of course. I guess the bottom line is - I wish the guy who actually lived in this state was considerably less of a joker. There! I said it.

(Oh, and by the way, there are TWO, count them, TWO, pediatric opthamologists in this state, one of whom is, obviously, possibly a joker. (Or, as I summed it up for the doctor in California - a beautiful, well-spoken and insanely stylish woman (Gucci heels! elegant off-white jacket and pants in contrasting natural fabrics!) - after I told her what the New Mexico doctor had told me, and she told me, in so many words, that what he said makes no sense - I said, So, in other words, what you're telling me is, the doctor we saw either summarized the situation down to an insanely condescending level, or he has no idea what he is talking about. Right! she said, with a beautiful smile. (She has seen her teeth-whitener.)(And possibly she may work out.)

(And when I say "insanely condescending level", it may help to know a few things. We met this doctor in Santa Fe - he knew we were driving in from Los Alamos. "Driving in from Los Alamos" automatically means a few things to people in Santa Fe. 1 - her husband is probably a physicist. (right) 2 - She may be too. (so not riight). (It also means things like: they must work on bombs, they must by right-right wing-nuts, and a few other, non-applicable assumptions.)(Both wrong, fyi.) The point is, WE ARE NOT DUMB PEOPLE. You do not need to basically tell us Wrong Medical Information so that our tiny brains can comprehend. I actually want to believe that's what he was doing - I'd rather he was being condescending to me than to think he is just Dead Wrong in his actual field. But it's hard to tell.)

Anyway. that is the fresh update from here. We were elsewhere. Now we're back! With a quandary about what to do for a follow-up appointment for Tiny Person, whose eyes we will now be patching and who, at 2, will own two pairs of glasses - one the right prescription, one the wrong. Fly to California again? A little prohibitive-ish. Have follow-up with first doctor who got everything wrong and may or may not be irritated to have to work with doctor who said so?

Remains to be seen.

And per the last (actually, first) reason for our visit - new niece is adorable. And sleeps a lot. (Lucky ducks!)

Read more!

Happy Mother's Day All!

And to those who aren't - and forgot - quick! Make a phone call. :)

Read more!

Actual conversation in my actual house:

Little Big Girl: Whoa! She's beautiful!
(image of Brook Shields flickers on our tv screen)
Me: Yeah, she is. She used to be a model. (pause) She's mommy's age.
LBG: NO WAY!!!
Me: Um, yeah. You don't think she looks my age?
LBG: (Face stricken in fear - she may have just offended the person who finds her tights and...and...there might be something else she does for me....) It's her skin! It's just her skin! It's just that her SKIN is so young!

LBG: Oh, and her hair. She has a LOT of hair!

Ah. Now I feel better.

(Let's be honest. It's not that I'm thinking I look like Brook Shields around here. it's just the level of APPALL in her voice that was impressive.)

Read more!

To all the random people who have suddenly found this site - er - Welcome! How'd you get here?

So, one time, I put a link to this picture on my blog:



the mountains behind Albuquerque, New Mexico

And then this other time I put this picture on my blog:


the trash the lovely nature-lovers leave at Everest

I put these up, probably, a year ago.

And each of the last two months I've had hundreds** - and I do mean HUNDREDS - of people come to look at my blog from these two pictures.

HOW? How can that be?! It's not even clear to me how you can find a site that referenced a picture, from the picture on Google Image. Does anyone know how that even works?

And more importantly, if you are here based on a picture of the Sandias or trash on Everest, well -- WELCOME! Feel free to stay awhile, look around a bit, come back even! I usually ramble about things that - er- have basically nothing to do with trash on Everest (although it's close to the floor of our toy room - ha!) or the mountains behind Albuquerque (I believe I made the mistake last time of referring to Sandia as the result of: God's own dump truck. I know! It's mean! But I thought it was funny! And accurate! And it's like the only time I've been purposefully callous on my blog - and it was to a mountain - and I paid! I hurt someone! I felt horrible.) but some of us find it somewhat entertaining here anyway. I know I do.

So, after the Welcome, if you don't mind - here's a question - and Welcome again! - but, er, what brings you? Please, PLEASE tell me. I am so befuddled! Hundreds of people interested in either Everest trash or that one RANDOM SHOT of the Sandias want to come here! I'm begging you to let me know how this happened.

And then, you know, feel free to stick around. We'll be serving tea and cookies later in the day and may even host a playgroup.

Maybe - and this is not idle speculation - okay, it IS idle speculation - maybe there is some kind of new crawler that searchs Google Images to find blogs to try to spam them....that would explain the jump in numbers in the last couple months, since these pics have been up a YEAR.

Anyone, any ideas, anyone?!!! I am so curious to know.

***hundreds = a significant jump for me, baby!

Read more!

Holy Crap I have been Locked Out! But I have much more important news about my amazing friend adopting in Kazakstan!

Holy Crap and I am not kidding. Blogger locked me out! I know, can you really complain about a free service? I guess this is what entitlement feels like. WHAT?! You're taking away MY FREE THING?!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!

Anyway, carrying on. I have found my way back in. Bastards. (New Blogger = Bad. New Blogger + New "gmail" account to try to appease them = Very Very Bad. (Conclusion: New Blogger akin to New Coke, New Math.))

Anyway. I'm back. Better than ever, I'm sure.

First up: my very good girlfriend is adopting a child! In Kazikstan!

Of course the first thing I said when she told me was: Oh my God - Borat! (And I haven't even seen the movie)

Her response: I know, and I am so pissed off! I just want to strangle that guy. Before, eveyone just said, Kasak-where? Now, everyone says, Borat! The kid's going to have a hard enough time adjusting to being here, now he's going to have that movie hanging over his head, too.

Fortunately, she did not let the movie dissuade her. (Nothing will dissuade her when her mind is set, fear not.)

You can read all about it on the link above, or here: http://heartofkaz.blogspot.com/, and it is amazing. The adoption just went through, actually.

I have all kinds of amazing stories to share about my friend Lynn - but I foolishly asked her permission and she's been too busy doing things like adopting young children, shopping in bazaars for his small clothes, and bringing him back to her flat in a foreign country to note whether or not I can retell exploits of our days in junior high. Sigh.

I have no Second Up. You know. I just like to say those things.

Read more!