Category: Family

Concerns

Posted on by Dana

I appreciated those of you who commented on my stress post.  Dana Elayne was right that part of it is end of the year wrap up stress.  I am under some other pressure at work, or at least I feel pressure.

I have been working through some personal issues, which I don’t feel comfortable sharing here, really, but things are OK.

Steve was in New York the last couple of days.  It’s nice to have him home again.

I have a lot of work to do for finals this weekend.  I need to make study guides and formulate the exams themselves.  I have some essays I still need to grade.  I am glad I have an extra day.  I need pace myself and not procrastinate (like I usually do).  I am feeling really tired today, however.  Lots to think about after a discussion with Randal and Josh at work today.  Lots.

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Spring Break

Posted on by Dana

The Book of ThreeMy spring break is nearly over. Not much going on. We couldn’t go out of town, because my break didn’t coincide with Sarah’s. She and I are reading Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three, which was poorly adapted, along with its sequel, into a Disney movie called The Black Cauldron. I think these books would make good movies if the same people who did The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, or the Harry Potter films did them, but Disney animators of the time did the books a real disservice — the cheesy soundtrack was especially disheartening. I remember going to see the movie with my mother and sister in about 9th grade, and I was thoroughly disappointed. If you haven’t read them, don’t judge the books by that awful movie. They are very good. I’m not sure how much Sarah is liking them. My fourth grade teacher first read us The Book of Three, promising us girls in the class that the girls always think they won’t like it because of the scary cover, then wind up loving it. She was right.

We went to my parents’ house for Easter, where Dylan refused to hunt for eggs, deciding he would rather run around in the grass than look for a bunch of silly eggs, so Maggie found them all. Sarah tried to help Dylan. When the kids colored eggs, Dylan apparently tasted the dye a few times. Yuck.

We had both Maggie and Dylan at the doctor this morning for physicals. We are worried about Dylan. He just turned three, and he still isn’t talking, though in every other respect he is perfectly normal. Our doctor wants to get his hearing tested first, then wants him to take speech therapy. I hope it works. After Maggie, who is so verbal, Dylan’s delayed development was strange. I wasn’t sure how much of it was due to his being a boy, and I wanted to be sure there was a real problem before I made a big deal out of it. The kids had to have vaccines, so that was not much fun.

I have a lot of research paper first drafts to read before I go back to school, and once again, I have procrastinated. I need to start tomorrow.

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Maggie

Posted on by Dana

Five years ago today, I was holding my brand new baby, Margaret.  We thought then that she’d be a Meg or Meggie, but she’s grown into a Maggie.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese and had chocolate cake.  Maggie requested a trip to the bookstore for her present instead of the toy store (that’s my girl), but when she was there, she picked out a Dora the Explorer book that plays music, a Hello Kitty backpack, and a stuffed white kitten she had already named Miss Tickles before we were out of the store.

Here are some pictures:

Maggie entering Chuck E. Cheese

Maggie at Chuck E. Cheese

Dylan sipping his Coke

Sarah and Dylan in the car

Actually, that last was taken a couple of days ago, not today, but I thought it was cute and wanted to share it.

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MySpace.com

Posted on by Dana

Have I mentioned how cool it is that my name is domain name now? Dana Huff dot Net. How cool is that?

I have been told by my students that they might actually visit the web site I set up for them if it was on MySpace. Can you believe that? Steve has a MySpace site. He actually seems to be using it, too. Students set one up for me, but I deleted it. There is just something inside me, something compelling, that will not allow me to have a MySpace site, even though I did get a Facebook site. Why I did it, I couldn’t tell you, because I can’t remember the last time I looked at until I just did so I could get the link. Actually, I’m not even sure you can look at until we add each other as friends, so the point may be moot, anyway.

I don’t know why, but I was so insulted by that remark from my students. MySpace sites are generally loud, garish, and revolting to look at. They are so loaded down with graphics and sound files that they crash browsers. And to top it all off, I can’t figure out what the point is. There is a blog feature, but most people I know on MySpace don’t use it. So it’s basically just a photo album where people they see every day anyway come by and make comments. I guess I could see having a site like that to connect to friends I rarely see, but my students’ sites anyway are littered with comments from each other. I just can’t bring myself to sign up for a MySpace account, even if doing so might help me connect with old friends. Speaking of which, each time I try looking for old friends, I am only more grateful that I got the hell out of Warner Robins.

In other news, I have strep throat. Sarah was out of school all week last week with it. It’s amazing that after taking just two pills, I already feel a lot better.

Girls, I want to offer you a bit of… well, you could call it advice, but maybe it’s just “from my experience, this works.” Might not work for you, I don’t know. In an entry that has been lost to the ether since my former host hosed up my site, I mentioned that a cashier at Panera had complimented me on my hair. I am way more than 50% gray at this point (I think), and I haven’t dyed my hair in over five years. This week, the guy who instructs our students in capoeira asked me if it was my natural color. I started to be snarky, because I think it’s pretty obvious that I don’t dye my hair (and I wasn’t feeling well, which sometimes brings out the snark) — why else would it be so gray? Anyway, I decided to be polite, as usual, and I said, “yes.” I was rewarded for my politeness when he told me — and I quote — that it was “beautiful, man.” He gushed about it, actually. Then he said that he could see someone trying to dye their hair that color and really screwing it up. It was nice to hear a man say those things about my hair, even if he is a little creepy. I don’t think Steve liked hearing about it. I think he was jealous. Of course, he’s been telling me he likes my hair for over five years. But doesn’t he have to? I mean, as my husband, if he says he’d rather I dyed it because he doesn’t like it gray, doesn’t that make him emotionally abusive in today’s culture? At any rate, I believe Steve does like my hair. Somehow, it’s different hearing it from someone else.

I was wondering if posting that would make him, mad, but he just doesn’t check in here very often for whatever reason, so I decided what the hell.

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Shaun White

Posted on by Dana

Is it just me, or does Shaun White look like he could be my husband’s kid?

Shaun White

Here are some pictures of my hubby when he was roughly Shaun’s age:

Steve and friend

Still not sure? What about this?

Steve and friends

Steve is, of course, the redhead.

What do you think?

By the way, Shaun White is the gold-medalist in Men’s Halfpipe snowboarding.

Is it weird I think this kid is cute because I think he looks like Steve?

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Granny

Posted on by Dana

My great-grandmother succumbed to leukemia at about 3:00 A.M. this morning. She was 91, and had she lived until her next birthday on March 19, she would have been 92. We have been expecting her to die for some time, and truly, it is remarkable that I was able to know my great-grandmother for so long. Sarah will have memories of her great-great-grandmother, and not many people can claim that.

Granny always used to have Dr. Pepper in bottles in her fridge whenever we visited. She used to offer us one as soon as we walked in the door: “Do you want a Dr. Pepper, Sugie?” She called all of us “Sugie.”

She had a very hard life. A few days ago, she told family members that she was “tired” and she was “ready to see Ted [my great-grandfather, who died of complications related to Alzheimer’s and diabetes a little over two years ago].

I do hope she is resting peacefully. She deserves it.

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So Far…

Posted on by Dana

… so good on the car. It is still shifting smoothly. I can only attribute it to one of two things 1) the new PCV valve, 2) something my ex used to call PFM (the “p”=pure and the “m”=magic; I’ll let you fill in the rest).

I bought Sarah a copy of Dragonology and its companion book, The Dragonology Handbook for her 12th birthday, which is today. She’s spending it with her dad. The books look really good. I’m going to sit down and look them over before I wrap them. Sarah is really into dragons right now. She wanted to read The Hobbit, because she heard there was a dragon in it. We have been reading it together, and we’re not to the part yet where Smaug is destroyed. She is rooting for Smaug, and I hope she won’t be disappointed when he goes down. At any rate, I hope she likes her birthday present. I can’t believe she’s 12.

Twelve years ago at almost this exact moment, I was giving birth to her. She was born in a Navy hospital. It was windy and snowy outside. I didn’t get to hold her after she was born. Instead of asserting my rights as a mother, I patiently waited while my mother and ex passed her back and forth. Then they took her away. I asked my doctor when I’d get to hold her, and he looked sort of stricken — he hadn’t realized I hadn’t been able to — and he said the pediatrician would be checking her in the nursery; after that, maybe. I waited and waited. I went into shock and had to go into Recovery before they took me to my room. I remember getting out of bed, clutching the back of my hospital gown closed, grabbing my IV cart, and padding down the hall to look at her through the glass. The nurses sort of glared at me, but I told them I hadn’t seen my daughter. That was when I first got a really good look at her. She looked like her daddy. Still does. Some time, hours later, they wheeled her bassinette into my room, which was stifling. My roommate had had a C-section. She had a baby boy — her second. He was huge — something like 9 or 10 pounds. I wished later that I had got her address so we could keep in touch.

Sarah really loves to read, and I like to take the credit for that. I still read to her. I don’t think that’s something people totally grow out of — enjoying being read to — why else would books on tape be so popular? She likes school. She’s neat kid, and we have some pretty interesting talks.

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Today I Went to Tefillah

Posted on by Dana

I have been under a lot of stress lately. I have felt burdened. It’s been difficult. I am very behind on my grading, and I need to get caught up. The research paper is starting, and I’ll have plenty to grade as these assignments come in.

At the same time, school is like a haven for me. Even though I’m behind, I feel much less stress at work. There are a litany of issues I’m dealing with right now. The unreliability of my car (not to mention certain people) is really straining my ability to cope.

I guess that’s why I went to tefillah today. Tefillah means prayers, essentially. I’m not required to go, although as a teacher at a Jewish school, I would consider it well within the rights of my headmaster to require it. Instead, he is sensitive to the religious beliefs of his faculty. Actually, he’s sensitive to the differing practices of his students, too. Our students can choose to go to discussion groups rather than prayer groups. I went to the egalitarian minyan service performed by our Conservative Rabbi Pamela Gottfried. It was really nice. I don’t know enough Hebrew to do more than sort of follow along and when I hear a word I recognize, like “Adonai,” I can scan the page for the reference to “Lord.” I kept up pretty well, considering. Rabbi Gottfried and the students were, I think, surprised to see me, but also, I hope, sort of happy. I enjoy listening to Jewish prayer. I think it is very cool that so much of it is sung, and I enjoy it when the students really get into it and supply a beat with their hands on the table or whatever else is handy.

I suppose God doesn’t care if one of His Christian children went to a Jewish prayer service. After all, He’s the same God. I have been called a Judeophile, and I guess I am. The fact is, I joked with my students about this — I would be Jewish if it wasn’t for that whole Jesus thing. I just can’t give Jesus up. I know that a lot of filthy, disgusting, and wrong-headed things have been done in His name, but if you simply read the text of His teachings… Anyway, I really enjoyed the service, and I’ll probably go again.

This may sound strange to you, but Hebrew is really a magic language. I’m not sure if my students really appreciate it because it gets reduced to a class — one more thing to learn — and it’s hard. I look at the Hebrew letters on a page, but they are little more than a jumble of odd lines and dots. I really admire my co-workers and students who have managed to master Hebrew, especially as a second language. I would love to learn. I have been contemplating trying to take a class. But I said Hebrew is magic — and what I meant is that it seems to me that it’s the language of God. I wonder if my students see it that way?

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Thanksgiving Hiatus

Posted on by Dana

I’m back after my Thanksgiving hiatus. I enjoyed a very well cooked meal at my parents’ house. We had a nice visit.

I’m more than a little disgusted by the performance of my car. I have done some research, and I can tell you it isn’t just me. Do not buy a Pontiac Montana. Your mechanic will love you. I just know that I’m in for a huge repair bill soon. The transmission is shifting very rough. It has been off since August or September, but now it gets angry at me if I drive it for a long period of time. The “Service Engine Soon” light comes on constantly — which seems to be a common flaw with this vehicle. This is my customer service announcement to you.

Steve just called. He has been in New York to be interviewed for a segment on Dateline, which will air next Sunday. If you were to look at our life circumstances at this moment, you would marvel at the surreality.

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