Eternal sunshine of my spotless mind

Conversation earlier this week (not verbatim, as my failing memory cannot even recall what I ate for dinner last nite):

[Background: Grandpa has been trying to prepare C-Man for my Vegas trip for the wedding. He's not coming and will spend several days alone w/Grandpa]

C-Man: Mommy, why is Aunty Chris getting married?

Me: Because her and Uncle Rob love each other very much. Aunty Chris is getting married to her boyfriend Uncle Rob.

C-Man: What's married mean?

Me: When 2 people love each other very much, they get married so they can spend lots of time together.

C-Man: Are you married?

Me: No, but I have a boyfriend.

C-Man: What's a boyfriend?

Me: Uncle Rob is Aunty Chris' boyfriend because she loves him very much. Do you know who mommy's boyfriend is?

C-Man: Yes, Uncle MO

Me: Right. And Uncle MO has a girlfriend, do you know who his girlfriend is?

C-Man: [shrugs] I don't know.

Me: It's mommy.

C-Man: Mommy. I want a boyfriend.

Me: No you don't.

C-Man: [yelling and on the verge of a tantrum] I want a boyfriend!

Me: Sweetie. Boys don't have boyfriends. Boys have girlfriends, most of the time. When you're a big boy and if you eat all your vegetables, drink milk and get lots of sleep, you'll be a big boy and then you can have as many girlfriends as you want. Okay?

C-Man: I want a girlfriend now.

Me: How about some milk?

C-Man: Okay.

My mood: tired, frustrated, PMSing, and I have a headache. I might also be catching a cold.

Posted by Cora at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My sister's former friends and classmates often mistake me for her. Today, I was at Blossom's and the guy behind the counter asks me "Are you Karen?" which automatically means that he doesn't know who I am. I did recognize him, so I asked his name and it turns out that he used to live on my street when we were younger and is my sister's classmate. It is a question I frequently endure and although somewhat flattering, seeing as she is younger, I am also insulted at the same time. The weird thing is that we don't look alike at all. At least I don't think so. I guess if you haven't seen either of us in 15 years or more, we could be mistaken for one another. I called Sis to let her know that I saw him. I forgot to ask her if people ask her if she's me. Of course, she lives all the way on the other side of the country, so I guess people wouldn't be asking her that. I digress. Time for bed.

My mood: Tired and cold

Posted by Cora at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight's conversation:

C-Man: Mommy play with me.

Me: What do you want to play?

C-Man: I want to play bad guys.

Me: I don't want to play bad guys.

C-Man: Why?

Me: Because bad guys are bad and I don't want to be bad.

C-Man: No mom. They say sorry to people when they kill them.

Me: [Speechless]

C-Man: [Acting out a scene with the bad guys where one knocks the other off the table. He picks up the one standing and leans him off the table and says...] I'm sorry I had to kill you, but I'm a bad guy and I want to run you over with my train.

Me: [Head downstairs to have a talk with Grandpa] What the heck are you guys watching when I'm not at home?

*****

Yesterday's Incident

Last nite I watched him play with his trains. He says "Watch this mom." He puts a plastic toy dog down on the floor, gets his train and then runs the train over the dog. He looks up at me and laughs. Then he says "That was fun. Watch me do it again."

My mood: speechless and slightly amused and horrified at the same time

Posted by Cora at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier today, or rather, yesterday during my baby-free time out I decided to exercise. KK made me feel guilty because she went walking in the afternoon and invited me along (her efforts at training for the upcoming Aloha Run which I have yet to participate in). I opted not to go, but am guilting about things I shouldn't have eaten (days and weeks ago) so guilt ultimately won (over doing laundry). I still need to fit into my beautiful Neiman Marcus dress, so I ran maybe a mile and walked the rest of the way. Stopped by to see MO, but he was also in slumberland, so I finished the rest of the way at a slower pace, much to the relief of my legs which are in no shape to be running. Ugh, definitely need to work more walk/run time into my barely existent exercise regime (okay, there's not enough exercise to even refer to it as a regime).

One thing I like about walking/running through the neighborhood as opposed to running on a treadmill at the gym is that the scenery changes. The other more interesting thing is that I like doing it at dinnertime because the sun is not so hot (not really a problem today since it's windy and overcast) and I like the 4-D effect (smells of dinnertime). As I pass houses I can usually catch a whiff of dinner. There were lots of local-style outdoor holiday dinner parties going on, so the smell of barbeque chicken, hot dogs and burgers filled the air along with laughter and varying dinner conversations. As I passed by this one house it smelled of roast, so I quickly breathed in deeply and happened to pass by a pile of doggie-doo. Yum-O. Also passed by a house with the definite aroma of weed. It was quite potent, you could probably stand outside and get a buzz (which I would never do). When I got back to the house, there was still time to eat dinner in peace and enjoy Larry King (perhaps "enjoy" is not the right word for it, but it was still peaceful).

My mood: still enjoying the fastly fading holiday and have the urge to bake something

Posted by Cora at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

since this entry is not written in shakespearian times i create this entry iin protest of my snobby english teacher it is a la cummings and grammatically incorrect without spellcheck or any punctuation whatsoever

here is my mindless drivel for the day :-) although it is nonfiction

i am sad because my green bay will not be in the superbowl mr phil you were right i should not bachi my team oh well theres always next year guess ill still have my superbowl party but i am now uninspired and you know which team ill be rooting for

sunday was a perfect day cman and i spent the earlier part of the day with mr literature snob at the beach for a little impromptu picnic it was a little windy and overcast i watched the two build a sandcastle and play in the water as i stood in the waves i could feel all the negative energy being carried away from me with every surge feelings of actual contentment bathe me along with the freezing salt water and i am suddenly aware of how lucky i am and how good my life is and always has been it is a feeling that seldom registers in my chaotic brainwave and one i will cherish for a long time to come it was a very cathartic moment

following our picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches chocolate soy milk and other assorted snacks i took cman home so that he could take a nap it was relatively painless because he knew he needed to take one if he wanted to go back out again with mo

on the agenda for the evening we were invited to mos dads house for dinner with his aunt and family who were visiting from california did i ever mention that his dad is an excellent cook the food was fabulous as it always is cman and i really enjoyed our time there we arrived before mo and left after him and yet i was not uncomfortable with being there without him i finally got to see the article in food and wine that had a great review of his brothers cooking abilities his brother is a chef on maui and owns his own restaurant and catering business i was pretty impressed i think cooking and the blending of food is in their genetics as mo is also a very talented cook

the evening continued with a little drama but i will save that for my own private little memory everything turned out fine in the end so thats all that matters and my day was still perfect

anyway i hope i can live with myself and this difficult to read entry i am actually quite proud that he is such a snob when it comes to the written word and he probably doesnt bother reading my drivel anyway so this protest is all for naught but at least i feel better and thats whats important :-)

my mood happy to have another day to my weekend

Posted by Cora at 06:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard the news today oh boy

I have to say I am truly disheartened by the amount of domestic violence that has been in the news lately. It almost makes one want to shut himself off from the rest of the world to experience ignorance as bliss. It is why I hate reading the news. And yet, in my career of choice, I almost always need to know the current news because someone will inevitably ask me about someone, something or some place that I should know about (it is a good excuse to read People magazine). Because librarians know everything, didn’t you know???

Once, at the reference desk at the main library I asked a woman to spell a name of some Eastern European political figure. She looked at me and spewed out “Don’t you know how to spell it?” I just looked her in the eyes and said, “If I knew how to spell it, I wouldn’t be asking you would I?” Some days, you just need to not mess with me. Thankfully those days are mostly over. My head is in a much happier place.

Anyway, the news was rather sad and I care not to discuss it further, as it will just depress me even more. I am just thankful that I am surrounded by friends and family that are well grounded and wonderful. My son slumbers nearby and I can return to my newsless and blissfully ignorant and peaceful life (at least for a few hours).

My mood: sad, I need a hug

Posted by Cora at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Events of note since our Vegas return:

On Friday, I went to a reception for the new big boss. It was a nice event catered by Elmer Guzman. His kalua pig toasty thing with tomato lomi (don't have a clue what it was called) was excellent. Main library was all nice and pretty. Our new big boss is a great guy. We chatted a bit about work stuff, legislature, web page, 60+ hour work week, family, etc. Got to see all my old buddies.

Saturday, it was our semi-annual girls’ day out. We started out a little later than usual. Lunch at Mariposa and retail therapy were on the agenda. Lunch was very nice. It’s great to be able to order whatever you want to eat without worrying about other people. Bought a beautiful Sue Wong dress from Neiman Marcus on sale. The sales woman was fabulous, if you ever get a chance to shop there ask for Char. Looked for a wedding dress for Chris' wedding. She got a gorgeous Marilyn 7-year itch dress from Macy's. Maybe we can get Rob to wear an Elvis costume? Not likely. It was a nice and relaxing day. Thanks to Grandpa for keeping C-Man occupied.

On Sunday, C-Man, a very fine-looking English teacher, and myself had fish-themed festivities planned. Fish invitation, fish sticks, fish crackers, fish game, fish feeding, fancy Fishy tricks, and followed by a fun-filled forage to the fish house in Waikiki, a.k.a. the Aquarium. The facility has many fish, cool jellyfish, not enough seals, and no honu. C-Man really enjoyed himself, although we started out late so it collided with naptime. Bad planning on my part. We rested afterwards. It was a nice, relaxing day.

The rest of my days have been filled with work. Nothing exciting. Lots of the usual stuff, statistics, orders, budget, lots of people out sick, no guard, graffiti in the bathroom, couple of students mooning a patron and then setting off the emergency exit door, etc.

Today we extended our Sunday outing by going to see the monk seal, Chester, on the beach near our home. C-Man was not too impressed with him, as he was snoozing and not active like his cousins at the Aquarium. He was more interested in playing in the sand. When I dropped C-Man off at Auntie M's house, she told me that Kekama lives in the house that's right by him. They watch him every day. Wow. I wish I could live at one of those houses. She says their property tax is something like $30,000 a year. They're thinking of selling off half the property. I say no, keep it big.

Our good friend Chester.

A beautiful day.

Oh, and a special plea to my good friend Phil: send me that limerick! Your bachi will counter my bachi. The world will be in balance again.

Hot links: Chef Elmer Guzman
Sue Wong
The Seven Year Itch
KGMB news story about Chester thanks to Aunty Jean for the link-- he was more impressive on television, but at least we can say that we got to see him.

My mood: tired

Posted by Cora at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’m here and I wanted to say
I’m rooting for my favorite Green Bay,
But if Pats should win,
Much to my chagrin;
The librarian, Phil, will hurray.

(Don't know if my punctuationing is correct. I'm sure if it's not, I'll hear about it from some crazy English teacher)

My mood: fishy

Posted by Cora at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the weekends, C-Man's sleep schedule gets thrown way out of whack. Last nite I came home around midnite and he was wide awake. He went to bed at 1:00 and woke up this morning at 6:30. Then I find out he only had a 1-hour nap. When I came home tonite at 11:00, he's still wide awake and his room look like it exploded. We spent quite a bit of time cleaning up blocks, legos, marbles, trains, garbage trucks, construction workers, etc. off the floor. I brushed his teeth and got him into bed with the usual protesting:

-This bed is broken. It's not letting me go to sleep.

-My eyes are not working. They won't stay closed.

-My eyes are not tired.

-I;m thirsty.

-I can't go to bed. My head is not ready.

My mood: tired--- I want to go to sleep, but I've got stuff to do that hasn't been done yet...

Posted by Cora at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So my BFF, KK is a semi-vegetarian. She eats seafood, but no poultry, beef, chicken or mammals of any sort. She won't eat escargot, so I don't know what that means. I wonder if she would eat an opihi? It's sort of snailish. I guess she just discriminates against land animals, or maybe favors them. I guess it depends on how you look at it. Anyway... here's my tale of spongy horror.

In Vegas, Musson bought some jerky-type soy product from Down to Earth. Don't get me wrong, I love vegetarian food and am quite fond of soy. (In fact, I used to be a vegetarian (no seafood either) throughout high school and can go for days without eating meat) She was raving about these soy jerky treats and brought some of them for us to try. She gave them to KK and one afternoon when we were feeling snacky, we opened one up. When I looked at it, the first thing I thought was that it looked an awful lot like dog snackies. I swear I've given these to my dogs at one point in their lives. Anyway, I'm always willing to try anything once (almost anything), so I took one. My first bite was quite disturbing. It was, for lack of a better description, airy and salty like teriyaki sauce. I choked it down and took another bite. I swear this is dog food. The next thought that popped into my head was that I was eating a dried up sponge that was used to sop up spilled teriyaki sauce. I am not kidding. Musson swears that the other ones were better tasting. I have my doubts.

My music: Tomorrow- Me first and the gimme gimmes; Promiscuous- Nelly Furtado; Around the world- ATC

My mood: achy, but happy

Posted by Cora at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Vegas, I stopped at this little kiosk selling sports chatskies and bought myself Christmas ornaments for next year-- Chicago Cubs and Redskins. There were no other teams I liked, otherwise I would have bought more. The shop owner tried to sell me a Redskins Santa hat, but I wasn't about to buy it. We started talking and when he found out I was from Hawaii we got into a BCS discussion. He said he was able to catch the games of Hawaii on ESPN and went to see them when they played UNLV. He said we should be proud of what the team accomplished, don't be embarrassed by the score. The pairing was uneven from the beginning. Georgia is a smash mouth school and UH plays with finesse. Georgia does play dirty, because it's their style. Hawaii tries to outthink the opponent and when you get the different styles together, it's gonna end badly for Hawaii. Not to mention that Georgia is just physically bigger than UH. I enjoyed our little chat and walked away feeling better about our loss. It's encouraging to hear nice things about our team after listening to them get trashed on ESPN. Am concerned about the direction of the program now that we've lost CB, June Jones and possibly other key people on the team. Hope our alma mater has the good sense to fire Frazier or he has the good sense to resign. Oh, wait a minute. I just did an internet search to make sure I spelled his name right and Pacific Business News is reporting that UH has dumped him. Woohoo. Of course, it's probably too late for the football program, but at least he can't screw up any other programs here.

Hot links: UH dumps Herman Frazier
Honolulu Advertiser Letters to the Editor Readers React to UH Sugar Bowl Showing There is one opinion here that I am especially fond of...

Posted by Cora at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is in response to Sis' COLD entry. Vegas was a chilly 43 degrees when we left, not including wind chill. Okay, when we landed, the captain said it was 78 degrees here in paradise. It's a good thing we layered clothes; it was hot when we landed and even hotter in the baggage claim. We've discovered why Hawaiian Air has the best on-time record. They get you on and off the plane pretty quickly, but we waited almost one hour for our baggage to come off the plane. I'm ahead of myself... Back to the Vegas report.

Landed in Vegas without any problems. Got to our hotel: the Excalibur. It is a fastly dying dinosaur of a hotel amongst the brightest and shiniest of the Vegas giants. Dingy, dark and dungeon-like, it smelled of stale cigarette and broken dreams. The waitresses are not Vegas' finest (middle-aged, possibly former Vegas beauties) and the machines were old and tired. The rest of the strip was it's usual: Millions of bulbs draining our electricity supply, cheesy men standing every 10 feet trying to get you to the strip clubs, young men looking for action, and girls in short skimpy dresses (despite the 40-degree weather outside). I didn't see too many young children while we were wandering about the city, but that could possibly be because it was fricking cold and it was late (one evening we returned to our hotel room after 1:00 a.m.). We wandered through endless miles of casinos and shops. It was great. Ate my Ben & Jerry's (pumpkin cheesecake-- Yum). Bought a new Coach bag (it was on sale). Went to Trader Joe's. Consumed way too much fast food and Krispy Kreme donuts (I love the pumpkin spice cake donut). Had a brief visit with my mom and got to see my aunty, uncle and cousin in the car when she left. I did walk away from the casino a winner. I fed a machine $4 and it gave me $70 in return. That's pretty much all the gambling I was allowed. When we go back to Vegas next month I will have more time to play.

Did I say next month? Yes I did. I get to go in about a month again to Vegas. We're thinking about staying in the same hotel or NY, NY. It was old, but we grew familiar with the surroundings and it's close to the Luxor which is where Chris is staying while she gets married. Still don't have hotel room, but we have our plane tickets. Am leaving C-Man at home with Grandpa. Anxiety much? I've never spent the night away from him. Will have to prepare him for the separation and hope for the best. He will be so mad at me for going on an airplane without him.

Anyway, the trip was refreshing. I love to get away. Even more than getting away, I love to come home. I love that first glimpse of the ocean as we emerge from the tunnel to the windward side. I love greeting my dogs. I love taking that first shower to wash away the grime of travel. My skin is dry and cracking. My face will start to peel as the epidermis sloughs away the effects of harsh mainland weather and water from my skin. Sort of like being reborn. I feel happy to be home and to live in such a beautiful place. Last nite, after visiting MO (it was a happy reunion), I glanced up into the perfect sky and saw all the brightness and glitter we need. No clouds, an absent moon and Orion's belt (one of the few constellations I can recognize) and a million stars await. It was cold and breezy, but perfect.

This morning I awoke and my dreams of paradise are smashed. I have the reality of cleaning up Christmas, unpacking, laundry, clutter and mayhem. [sigh]

My mood: happy to have the day off for recovery efforts

Posted by Cora at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

from Vegas. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Just kidding... nothing like that happened.

Need to sleep. Write more tomorrow.

My mood: Tired and cold

Posted by Cora at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Went to see Juno with MO yesterday. Last week we went to see the Tyler Perry movie "Why did I get married?" and left after 2 minutes thinking "Why did we go to that movie?" Not a tragedy, since we only paid $2 to see it (gotta love the $1 theater).

Juno was fun and the dialogue was reminiscent of Joss Whedon or at the very least Veronica Mars. I loved the music and will probably iTune it. Ellen Page is a fabulous young actress. According to my movie bible, IMDB, she's been in over 20 films, none of which I've seen (which is not surprising, I haven't been watching too many films lately). She's incredibly young (or I'm getting old), she was born the year MO graduated from high school (or maybe he's getting old... and I'm following a close second). Yikes! Anyway, I loved the entire cast. They were all great. I wish they had shown more history behind her relationship with Bleeker. It might have been more helpful in convincing me at the end, of course, I am the cynic when it comes to teenage love (though I shouldn't be, considering my current relationship). Don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I won't go into the details of the movie, if you want to know what happens, I suggest you watch it and find out. You'll fall in love with Juno too.

Cool Link: Juno

I know, I know, pack woman, pack...

Posted by Cora at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of my dear friends is getting married on Feb 10 in Vegas. We're going back for the wedding.

When I opened up the Explorer page to Yahoo, Colt Brennan is #1 on Today's Top Searches. Woohoo.

Still not packed yet, but should be by the end of the day (ha, ha). Am testing out this lambwool sweater I've had for ages, and it's quite warm. Guess I should pack it for the trip. The current temperature in Vegas is 43, which is major coldage compared to my current location (I fell asleep with shorts on, with a blanket, of course).

Need to do a bunch of stuff today. Return some Christmas gifts to the store, pick up a prescription (which I forgot to do yesterday), and pack. Don't think I'll make it to Costco, but I might try. Dropping C-Man off at Auntie M's so that he can get in a nap. Don't need to deal with grouchypotamus at the airport tonite.

Well, I had better stop stalling. Don't know if I'll have a chance to write from Vegas...

My mood: happy

Posted by Cora at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Leaving for Vegas tomorrow nite.

I love to travel, but hate to pack. I hate the feeling like I'm taking too much or too little or I might forget my toothbrush and the world as we know it will end, because (God forbid) should I forget something I might have to just BUY another one somewhere. Which just leads to more anxiety because it probably won't be on sale and I'll have to pay $5 for a frickin' toothbrush! Aaargh. Someone just give me a shot and put me out of my misery...

Okay, that was a little dramatic. I actually don't stress out like that anymore, but I used to. I still hate packing. Unpacking is worse. It's a catch-22 because I actually can't pack for this trip because I haven't unpacked from the last trip to Maui. So my suitcase is full of stuff I haven't used since September (that's where that stupid shirt went). That just goes to show you how much crap I own. I can actually not unpack until I need the suitcase again.

It probably would help if I also wasn't procrastinating about doing it too. I guess I should start. I've been home for about 5 hours now and haven't done anything but laundry and a short nap.

My mood: happy-- despite all of the drama in my mind

Posted by Cora at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou!

Have been busy, so that's my excuse for not having time to reflect on the most recent year gone by. 2008 looks like a promising year of growth, adventure, and discovery. I have given up on making pointless resolutions except my one which I know I can keep which is to tell C-Man that I love him every day. I will make efforts to be healthy, exercise more, and to hold on to the good things in life.

Here are a few photos taken today:

Coconut Apricot Cupcakes...

Beautiful New Year's Eve flowers, which I may have killed because I passed out before I could put them in water when I came home...

Items C-Man picked in the yard. He brought me the flower first because he saw the roses upstairs and thought I'd like more flowers...

As always, I feel blessed. Hope everyone has a wonderful new year. May peace, joy and good health follow you on your journey.

Go Warriors!

My mood: H A P P Y

Posted by Cora at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)