Stuck in fast-forward.

I had really hoped to be back before now. I feel, as the title suggests, as if I am stuck in fast-forward. I hate that feeling on principle, but it's especially sad when it's in the middle of the holiday season. This is my favorite time of year, but I haven't gotten nearly anything done yet that I usually do by now. My Christmas cards were just addressed today and won't go out in the mail until Monday. I have one batch of cookie dough refrigerating, hopefully to be baked tonight but perhaps tomorrow. Our tree isn't up yet.

I guess I should cut myself a little slack, since we have a 4 1/2 month old dictating most of my schedule these days. He is a great baby, but it's still a bit unpredictable how much time I will have to get things done any given time he is asleep. I'm also trying to get back into shape; lately I've been averaging 3-4 days on the treadmill per week, and I added my long weekend run back in last week. With the weather as cold as it's been around here, I put a movie on and hop on the treadmill for 90 minutes. Before you gasp, I'll fully admit that I do a slow jog and take walk breaks every 5 minutes.

Anyway, I had an idea for a fun series of poems, taking off on the 12 Days of Christmas. If anyone wants to join me, that's great. If not, I guess I'll do it for my own entertainment. I'll post it in a separate entry, however. Hopefully tonight, depending on how it goes. :)

Poetry Challenge: Ripped from the headlines.

Hey folks,

Long time no see. I am running out of excuses not to blog, so here I am. I said I would write a poem related to this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, as I will do below. I will expand my inspiration for my readers to be able to select any current event that strikes their fancy. I feel that feature-y news stories work better for this type of thing, but if you find something newsy that works, go for it. If the story is not really familiar, please include a link to the story which provided the inspiration.

Here's mine:


Evergreen

I provided shade for generations
in a peaceful New York suburb.
Only recently have I grown so large
that the family worried at the prospect
of a windstorm bringing me down on them.

The father of the family,
one of New York City’s Bravest,
could not fathom losing any more
people he loved in a senseless manner
if he could help it.

So I was chosen
to be packed on a truck,
carefully pruned and groomed,
fitted with millions of lights
and brighten Rockefeller Center.

When I got to Manhattan,
I had one more surprise:
a nesting bird in my branches.
The bird was carefully removed
and now lives in the Central Park Zoo.

When this season is over,
I will yield myself again
to provide shelter for those in need,
safely sheltering further generations
as I have my whole life.

The story outlining most of these facts can be viewed here.
The rest was reported on the Today Show over the past few weeks, and I think you can probably find it by searching their page. Now, go forth and write!

Where DOES the time go?

I mean, really.

Last Wednesday I turned 32. I had to ask my husband several times leading up to it what age I was really going to be, I keep forgetting.

This Friday my baby boy will be four months old already. He smiles and holds his head up very well while on his stomach, and has the beginning of a cute laugh starting. He doesn't scream through his entire bath anymore, just when I'm washing his hair and face, and then he calms down again as I am drying him off. He likes to "talk" to me if I hold him in front of me. So cute!

My older son is now obsessed with the Ellen Degeneres Show. He particularly loves the beginning of the show; he tries to sing along with the theme song and copies the announcer saying "From the Warner Brothers Studios, here she is now, Ellen Degeneres!" as she walks out of the big doors on her stage. He will do this with two toy cars and a drinking straw or whatever he can find. Too funny.

My husband is doing NaNoWriMo this year, as I did last year. I realized as he began his writing that I had been avoiding the editing process with my novel from last year, and I have finally started editing it. I am 2/3 of the way through it, if only for the very basic edits. I am relieved that it isn't quite as bad as I feared it would be going back through it. I only hope that when I let other people read it they won't think it's worse than I do!

Before I forget, I am going to put here my next idea for a poetry challenge: write a poem based on some interesting news story. Mine will be about this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. I shall also try to get back on here to write that poem within a week or so. :)

Poetry Challenge: Web Inspiration

Hello again!

I lost count of how many challenges we've had, so I guess I'll stop numbering them. It doesn't really matter, right?

Anyway, I thought this time we could look around for something on the internet to inspire us. If you are stumped for an idea, may I suggest PostSecret.com. I am constantly amazed by the things people choose to anonymously share with Frank on his weekly blog, although I can understand how freeing that sharing could be. One secret in particular struck me this week:



This postcard brings up so many questions. I wonder what Sara must think when reading it. Does she know it's for her? Does she know what her friend means by it? I like to think she does. Here's what I came up with:

Postcard for Sara

It's your turn to decide.
I can't make your choice for you
this time.
Examine your path options carefully
and steer your feet wherever the mood
strikes you.
You can make up your mind to pursue
that dream you always thought was
too extravagant.
You can go for that crazy whim
you've been putting off, fearing
you'll fail.
Whatever you choose,
I'll be right behind you.
You can be the queen
of anything.

So, what have you got for me? I'm waiting!! Oh, and please share the URL of whatever inspires your work.

Welcome to the madhouse!

But it's such a great place to be, I swear.

Life with two boys is definitely more than twice the work, particularly since my older son, who was formerly practically angelic, has now resorted to acting up more often, I assume because he gets attention away from his brother that way. I feel bad that I have to make him wait for things more often now, but really, he has handled the adjustment with a lot of grace for a two-and-a-half year old. He still tries to give his brother kisses on his hands and helps me burp him. He has never once complained about him at all.

The thing I have found the most challenging is traveling with both children. We were invited to a family reunion for my husband's family a few weeks ago, and we agreed to come although I was dreading the 2 1/2 hour flight to get there. I made sure to select a flight that did not make any stops, at least. Unfortunately Murphy's Law was in full effect for the flight out, however. First, the flight was delayed for at least a half hour before we were even called to board, making it about 10:30PM. Then, after getting on the plane (no small feat with a large toddler car seat, toddler, and infant) and leaving the gate, the pilot came on the PA and announced that we had a malfunctioning computer so we were going back to the gate to switch to a different plane. Terrific. After all was said and done, we didn't get in to the reunion city until 3:30AM (the hotel was an hour from our airport). The cherry on top was that the key reader to let us into the hotel was not working properly, and we could not get the night clerk to answer the buzzer to let us in. Finally some woman who was staying at the hotel had to go out to her car and we got in that way, but my father in law gave that clerk a piece of his mind when he finally got him to come out from their break room or wherever he was. The rest of the trip was mercifully uneventful, and it was great to introduce our newest addition to his great-grandfather, but I am glad we don't have to truck both children on a plane again until Christmas, when my mom has supplied us with accommodations to stay in Orlando for the week.

A typical day now consists of at least one period in which both children are shrieking and/or crying, a long walk, sometimes punctuated by a trip to the park to tire out the toddler, and a nap for everyone in the house. Ideally these naps line up so Mom can get one too. Once the baby sleeps for a long stretch at night (we got 7.5 hours last night, hooray!!) on a regular basis, Mom will replace her nap in the day with when she will run on her treadmill to hopefully get back to her fighting weight a little faster than she did with her older son. I had actually hoped to run a 5k in a few weeks, but I am not sure if that is such a good idea anymore...we shall see if I can get a few trial runs in first. It isn't very far so if I can get a few in, I will still do it. My big goal is to train for the 2011 Chicago Marathon and run it with my brother, who is running it for at least the third time next weekend.

Well, that about sums it up for now. I will post the Poetry Challenge as a separate post shortly.

watch this space...

I will return (hopefully tonight) to post a brand new poetry challenge as well as another synopsis of the crazy life I have been leading the past month. Watch this space for my triumphant return...or my return, at any rate. :)

What Patriotism Means to Me.

I can’t believe it’s been nine years since the attacks on the World Trade Center. I’m sure most of you can still remember where you were when you heard the news. I was listening to NPR on the way to buy a futon for my first apartment; we had gotten married just three months before and were moving into the apartment that day. We didn’t have our real bed yet but planned on using the futon as a couch once the bed arrived. I am very lucky nothing out of the ordinary happened on the road as I listened to the tragedy unfold; I was slowly losing awareness of what was happening in front of me as I tried to wrap my mind around the situation. My husband and I took separate cars to the store as I was planning to go to work afterward, so when we stepped out of our cars in the parking lot, he looked at me and said, “is this the end of the world?” It really seemed like it could be at that moment. I don’t recall being that scared in my entire life.

Time and life has dampened down the fear since then, although it is still a real undercurrent in daily life. For me, however, I am able to differentiate between terrorists and others who have only one similarity to those who would hurt us: a claim to the Muslim faith.

This is why I am so sad about the developments surrounding the proposed Muslim community center near Ground Zero. Just because there is an area reserved for prayer, the majority of the American people are up in arms about a “mosque” being built near “sacred ground.” Well, no one stopped the strip joints from moving in. I am more offended by that than a simple area for prayer. It’s not a terrorist training center. It’s not even officially a church of any kind. I am generally in favor of spaces in urban areas that provide a place for youth to go and participate in more productive activities than loitering and getting into trouble. I have no problem with that center being opened by a religion other than my own.

I am sure you have heard about the pastor who threatened to burn copies of the Koran on this ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This is the exact opposite of what I wish would happen on this anniversary. Why do people seem to think that showing prejudice and violence will stop or discourage people who seek to exact violence upon us? Have these people forgotten the phrase, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”? People who hate Americans will only hate us more if we insult their religion. It is amazingly ignorant and simplistic to target all members of a religion as “terrorists” when the core values of that religion are actually very similar to Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. A very few clerics advocate violence, while the majority urge peace. It is no different in any religion, or even in any given group of people; there are some radicals while a much greater number adhere to the core teachings of their religion which reject intolerance and violence, promoting peace and understanding.

In my ideal world, the anniversary of such horrific attacks would be full of examples of love and understanding among the people of the world. It would fly in the face of those few individuals who seek to destroy peace. Perhaps Pastor Terry Jones would benefit from reviewing Jesus’ actions toward those who sought to do violence against him and his followers instead of resorting to the same sort of blind hatred against which he is railing. I am glad that it appears that Pastor Jones has had a change of heart, but it still makes me ill that he would have even considered such a ridiculous show of ignorance. It gives me a glimmer of hope for the future of American-Muslim relations that it seems that most people were against his idea, however. Perhaps sometime in the near future people will gain a greater understanding of other religions and realize that just as Christians cannot all be painted with the same brush (I am not of the same cloth as Pat Robertson, for example), neither can Muslims.

Today and every day, let us strive for more understanding and love among all people. That is the best way to honor the lives that were taken too soon.