gwen says: take a chance, you stupid ho...
...tick tock tick tock...take a chance cuz you might grow/life is short, you're cap-a-blethanks, Gwen, I'm still a super-hot female. I guess I'm not waiting for anything.
I went to Kinko's yesterday and made a nice color-copy of my Eurotrip diary. I think I'm sending it to Sean Wilsey soon, and then McSweeney's depending on what he says. I can't see myself having creative freedom (or the mixed media and frequent copyright permission that I want, or need for this book) anywhere else but there. I guess if they're not into the manuscript, I'll have to take it to the big dogs in NYC. But that's kind of my last resort; I'd almost rather self-publish and promote it myself.
On Sunday night, I "babysat" for Lainey (and Anna, who was already sleeping and mostly just a voice on the moniter, Vader-style), but I put it in quotes bc I never feel like I'm truly minding children, as Mary Poppins would. Mostly, we hang out and talk about tv shows and crafting and movies and toys and things that Lainey is thinking about.
Here's an example of her thought process, very similar to mine when I was her age: we walked over to the Pick Me-Up cafe to use their bathroom and chill out for a little while. We ended up splitting an Oreo sundae--we both pretty much just ate the whipped cream and chunks of Oreos, then got sick of the sundae--and she was crazed on sugar. I thought of TC and how he would posit that Lainey's ADD, except NOT AT ALL. She's four, has lots of ideas and better expressed through Jung (thanks A-Ron, I actually visited the Semester at sea website and they had a good Jung quote but it must be on some sort of time-release thing bc it's been replaced with Emerson): "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." We walked outside, and I asked her to hold my hand and stand on the inside of the sidewalk, since cars/trucks in the city drive fast and might side-swipe us. "And then I'd be in a wheelchair," she said. I replied, maybe, but maybe not. "Kids can't be in wheelchairs." I said, yes they definitely can, but some kids are in wheelchairs for a short time and some kids are in wheelchairs for their whole lives, like when they're adults and grandparents. "But wheelchairs are hard to be in." Yes, they are, but you can play sports in wheelchairs and live a pretty good life. Then we talked about wheelchair basketball.
Lainey, as a kid, has the best of both worlds: being able to dream and awaken, since both are possible, and she's surrounded by people who allow her to think it possible. Not that she can't be a ballet dancer or one of the million things she'd be good at, but I like how her parents are completely real to her, while not squashing her fabulous creativity.
Megan, Annie and Lainey came over to pick me up yesterday since I had called before their playgroup at Spring Rock to see if Lainey wanted to run errands with me and have a girlfriends afternoon of hanging out. And I had a blast; I think Lainey did too, but we were both exhausted when I dropped her back off around 5ish.
We started by going out to lunch at Einstein's bagels and we ate YourUp-style on a bench, since all the Hinsdalian corporates & golf-moms-in-Prada were having lunch dates, and the outside tables were full. We matched, in pink, but not even planned! But we both love Jem, so of course, know the other one appreciates pink. I had my Blondie shirt on, and Lainey was wearing a pink mini-culotte ensemble, with a white polo. Plus, we both had purses; hers was a little chickie and it looked adorable with her outfit. After we had bagel sandwiches and discussed what music we wanted to listen to on the ride in to the city, we jumped into Big Red and got on the Stevenson.
Now, I didn't realize until I dropped Lainey off and Andy said, yeah, she really doesn't like being the car for a long time. But that's pretty much what we did--hung out in Big Red, listened to music (lots of girl power, Lainey's big into boys vs. girls; at one point, she said {as she bit into her cheese-on-a-bagel sandwich} "boys don't eat grilled cheese right?" and I said, well some boys do, but today, only girlfriends get to eat grilled cheese...wasn't sure what to say since basically everyone I know loves grilled cheese) sang along, and told jokes. I wanted to drop off two things at Erich's apt, since he's going to MIA in Northbrook for a while, and Lainey was so curious about him. When I first said his name, she said, "Like Eric from 'The Little Mermaid"?" and I said, exactly. "So he's married to Ariel?" Uh, not exactly.
Then she wanted to know why he didn't have any hair, which I tried to relate to Lainey as a 'remember when you were a baby and you didn't have any hair?' So she said she wanted to save these sparkly USA barretts I gave her for Erich, so he can wear them when he has hair again. And I said, Lainey, I'm not completely sure if he'll wear these even when he has hair. But she was already making a Will-as-babysitter parallel, when he told her his name was "Willamena" and he pretended to be an actual girlfriend. Lainey was like, we'll say, ha ha ha you're a girl! if Erich puts barretts in his hair. I laughed at her idea, but then at this possible scenario of it occurring. When my brother was babysat by the Nelligans and older teens on Ashland Ave, he'd always come home with barretts in his red curly hair.
Lainey thought that his apartment looked like a castle, which it kind of does. But we were pretty sure he was sleeping, and Lainey had to go to the bathroom so bad ("my pee is this close to coming out, Sarah!" and I had told her we might have to go in his backyard, maybe he had a garden. But no go on that; I think I completely made up that idea of a garden when were stuck in traffic on the Edens, and she started mentioning she would have to go soon. I took her to the bathroom at the Pick Me-Up Cafe, where we both signed our initials in orange chalk on the door.
Then we headed back to the burbs, and of course, got stuck in traffic on the Eisenhower and poor Lainey was like, can we get out and do jumping jacks? Oh, I forgot, when I was leaving a note at the door, she was antsy and had energy to dispose of, so Lainey started doing a cheerleader routine, complete with leaps and twists. Then she got down on her hands and knees (on the sidewalk in front of Erich's building!) in a sort of downward-facing dog pose, so her little bottom was sticking out just as these two guys my age walked by. It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen, but of course, I had to let her know Roscoe st. might not be the place to do yoga on the sidewalk.
I forgot, Lainey really loved Gwen Stefani, and especially like the cover. When we were in the car on the way to the city, and thought maybe we could craft and watch tv on Erich's couch, she asked if I would read her the liner notes, like it was a story.
Then, during Kelly Clarkson, she asked, ooh, she said 'hate'--that's a bad word. Who does she hate? I replied that KC "hated" herself for letting someone get away. Lainey asked, who was it that got away? And I said, maybe the love of her life? Maybe her boyfriend? I'm not sure; I don't know Kelly that well.
On the way home, I put on the Bravery (even though they're boys) and Lainey loved #1, an honest mistake, and right as soon as the song kicked in (since it's intense from second one!) she starts tapping her legs in the carseat and goes, I can't stop moving! I said, I feel the same way girlfriend, except I have to drive the car so I move my arms instead of my legs.
Yikes, it's 2pm. I have to take a shower and get ready to go to work.
oh, if you read this and you live in the Chicago-area, keep Sept. 22 free: it's the first event for 826CHI
(and also my mom's bday!)
posted by SES @ 4:03 PM
1 Comments:
nice post. f'ing coherent. have you been listening to your fans/critics or something? i like the inside/outside play off the emerson (or l-ron?) quote. and i never knew about the einstein at the beach / philip glass eurobagel.
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