Darger

I've been putting some of my music up on band camp! Check it out. And you should know that I can see whenever someone skips a song without finishing it. I KNOW.

A Very Important Interview

Was Ernest Hemingway Hot?

On Repeat

Lately I've had obsessions with albums. An album I play on repeat in the car. One for the office. One at home. They don't change for about a week. In some cases, it's a few weeks!

Here are some recent/current obsessions:

All Hail West Texas by the Mountain Goats. Every song rips out my heart and tears it into pieces that slowly float down in front of me while I drive. "Too far gone to catch them all, but not too far gone to care."

The Best of Leonard Cohen. What else is there to say? Before I switched to Cohen, it was Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water. There's a way the sounds of these albums make me feel, but there are also associations that bring me back again and again. Justus sings some Cohen songs. 

Lodger by Bowie. All the way up, late at night, driving. I think Lodger rules.

Bloom by Beach House. This is on repeat in my office these days. It was nice when I had the office to myself for a few days this week and I turned this on and all they way up.

And then reluctantly on repeat is Alphabutt by Kimya Dawson. My kids are obsessed. They don't mind Raffi and they love the Beach Boys, but Alphabutt is their top pick. Every Day.

A Basic Right

Daily outdoor free play is a basic child right. It's not a reward for doing well; it's not a treat. It's a need. And half an hour at recess doesn't cut it. 

I wish I could give my kids what my parents gave me and my siblings: fields and woods and creeks and time to explore it all. 

At this point, I can't give them any of those things. But I can take them to this park in our neighborhood after school. I can let them run around and climb and swing and wrestle until almost dark. I can chase them and tumble down into the grass to tell them wide-eyed stories about fairy rings. 

Half Measure, Full Measure

I finally had a chance yesterday –yes, in the middle of the work week!– to pull out all this stuff and use it.

I worked a half-day at my job. Technically, I worked a full day, half at home. But I'm much more efficient at home than work. It's like when you're homeschooled and you finish everything by noon while all your public schooled peers still have hours to go.

Anyway, now I know how to use all this. Well, mostly.

Home

So, our wage system and the cost of living are based on the assumption that two adults support every household. Such is not the case. Oh, no. There are all sorts of families, you know, and a lot of them don't have two grown-ups bringing in money. Lots of them don't even have two grown-ups.

Apropos of nothing, as Dumas might say.

Like New

This is where my kids sleep now.

There's this Tomie dePaola book my kids love about a little girl whose constant is her quilt. Through all life's changes, new houses, new schools, new friends, she has one thing that always feels like home. I'm glad my kids have quilts because they need them these days.

Last week, I climbed into the attic at Irene and brought down the quilt Gramere made for me. It is was red and white. Now it's all the same kinda faded tan. Anyway, it has a giant hen that takes up almost all of one side. Under the hen is a stitched motto: "Then I will," said the little red hen, "and she did."

During these months of no blogging, our lives have changed a great deal. I separated from James and moved to a different city. New home, new job, new life. New schools for my kids, new yard to play in, new life.