25 random things about me

Yes, I caved.  But I have to say, it was pretty fun.

1. I like to think I didn't do this earlier because I am too aloof, but really I couldn't figure out how to. Like, technically. I still think I may have it wrong.
2. Disco will never be dead in my home.
3. I once saw Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Carol Burnett, Misha Barton, and Courtney Love at the same bar on the same night. 
4. I consider myself a feminist but I have probably spent about 25% of my adult life worrying about my body.
5. I berate myself out loud in the car. But only when I'm alone.
6. I still sometimes feel physical, cheek-burning humiliation about things I said or did decades ago.
7. I am strangely proud that I weighed 200 pounds at the end of my pregnancy with twins. 
8. I have a Master's in English and I've never read a novel by William Faulkner or Virginia Woolf. Sometimes I pretend I have, though. 
9. For a while in my childhood we were friends with an ex-con named Swede who drove a pale yellow Cadillac and brought us weird gifts like sets of silverware and a copper espresso machine.
10. I went to part of fourth grade in a tiny village in Mexico. I hated it at the time but now it's a source of pride. 
11. I am powerless in the face of macaroni and cheese from a box. 
12. The carpet does not match the drapes. Never has.
13. I'm pretty sure I'm not as good looking as I think I am.
14. I find motherhood way harder than wifehood.
15. I wish I liked yoga but I don't. It makes me very impatient and it hurts my feet.
16. One of my greatest pleasures is to be alone in my house, sitting on the couch with a magazine. 
17. I'm terrified of divorce, cancer, car accidents, and spiders.
18. Some of my favorite memories are of trips I've taken with my friends Kate and Lisa. Once we talked for nine hours in the car. Without stopping. Seriously.
19. Before he married me, my husband was the mellowest guy I knew.
20. I have had four step-mothers. Now I have none.
21. I fear my ambitions outweigh my talents.
22. I was once followed by the secret police in Romania. For three days.
23. I was once detained for stealing towels in Panama. I was innocent.
24. I really like my job, as jobs go.
25. I often wish I had done something more useful with my life. 

25 things about my son

25 thing about Oliver Joseph at two-and-three-quarters:

1. He called Maggie "Sissy" until very recently.

2. We call him "Oliver with the strange water-repellent hair" because his hair is strangely water-repellent.

3. He is crazy about kitties and has been since the first time he saw a picture of one when he was not yet a year old. 

4. When something captures his attention he asks us to "talk about it," as in "Mommy, talk about the traffic."

5. He's a spectacular dancer, but he can't throw.

6. I've never seen him tire of being read to.

7. He won't eat any meat, fish, or chicken but he loves tofu and cheese.

8. Sometimes he looks at me and says, "Mommy, you're the cutest."

9. He can throw a mean and prolonged tantrum.

10. He still sucks a paci when he goes to sleep and he'd like to suck it more.

11. His first sentence was "I don't know."

12. He would like the opportunity to ride more buses.

13. He says his favorite color is black.

14. He recently said to me, "I don't want you.  I want a different Mommy." It made me cry, but it was a bad day anyway.

15. He likes to figure out how things work: light switches, pulleys, gears, etc.

16. Every night he asks me to sing "Hush Little Baby."

17. I know he wants to play bunnies when he looks at me and says, "Hello, mommy bunny.

18. He is terrified of walking in parking lots or streets (I consider this an accomplishment.)

19. He's in the 17th percentile for height but he doesn't care.

20. He loves to be tickled, especially by his dad.

21. His feet are so wide I fear he may someday have to wear special shoes.

22. When he was born we were told he had a heart murmur caused by a genetic defect. Two years later we found out that his heart is completely normal.  No murmur.

23. We once had to come home early from a weekend away because he had such bad diaper rash. 

24. He is one of the funniest people I've ever met and I think he might know it.

25. For a large portion of his second year he didn't walk: he ran, hopped or jumped everywhere. 

A thing I like

My dad's new Bonsai blog.  He's a good writer, my dad.  And he knows a lot about bonsai and Japanese gardening and trees in general.  He can be kind of a know-it-all, actually.  I come by it honestly.  My brother Joseph designs the site.  He's also a know-it-all, mostly about music and books.